If the England side under Alastair Cook struggled to give consistent performances throughout his tenure, the early signs under newly-appointed captain Joe Root is not promising either. The Alastair Cook-led side had made of coming with a poor display after a superlative one and if Joe Root’s two-match old captaincy is something to go by then it is safe to say that the problem still persists.
Root began his captaincy career with an impressive 211-run win over South Africa in the first Test at Lord’s but he must have got a feel of how tough the job is when the Proteas inflicted a heavy 340-run defeat on his team in the second Test on Monday (July 17) at Trent Bridge.
The target of 473 on a pace-friendly wicket against South Africa’s formidable attack was always going to be tough but the manner of capitulation from the English players must have surprised one and all. Joe Root & Co. needed to bat for six sessions to register an unlikely win or salvage a draw but they never looked in contention as they were bowled out for just 133 inside 45 overs with only Cook (42) managing a 40-plus score while seven players failed to reach the double digit-mark too including Root (8).
Speaking after the match, Root expressed his disappointment over the way things turned out in his second match as the captain of the team but insisted not to overreact to a heavy loss.
“It was very disappointing the way we played today,” Root said. “We’re a side that doesn’t like giving anything away and unfortunately today that wasn’t a fair representation of how good we are as a team.”
“It’s important to stay calm,” he added.“There’s a lot of cricket left to be played in this series. It’s important we don’t sulk, we don’t get too down on ourselves. We’re a good side and we don’t lose that overnight – we need to learn the lessons quickly from this week.”
The loss will surely compel the think-tank to make some tough calls with the likes of Keaton Jennings, Garry Ballance, Mark Wood and Liam Dawson failing to impress.
“We will sit down over the next couple of days. They are talented players and they will be desperate to make their chances count when they come along. It’s important at The Oval we try to get off to a really strong start especially in the first innings and those guys are more than capable of doing it. The way they’ve gone about things in practice and the runs they’ve scored in county cricket has been outstanding and now it’s just about doing it in international cricket,” said Root.
England’s inconsistent displays have seen them losing 15 Tests since the beginning of 2015 while winning 13. But Root does not look very keen on thinking about it and is instead counting on his talented teammates to bounce back.
“I can’t put my finger on it,” said Root. “I look at the talent in the dressing room and the players we have and it shouldn’t happen like that.
“It’s something we’ve spoken about and we want to make sure we put it right. That all starts with how we prepare to lead into the next Test.”