England all-rounder Chris Woakes has backed his captain Joe Root to continue as Test skipper despite England’s horror show in the Ashes. England’s skipper is getting criticism from all corners after they faced another thrashing defeat in Melbourne as Australia took an unassailable lead of 3-0 to retain the Ashes with two tests to go.
However, Chris Woakes showed full support for his captain. The 30-year old still believes that he is the right man to lead England in red-ball cricket. Notable that England equalled the record of most defeats (9) in a single calendar year.
“Absolutely! It’s clear that the captaincy isn’t having an effect on his batting, which a lot of the time with captains can be the case,” said Chris Woakes.
In the year 2021, Root carried England’s batting line-up single-handedly as the right-hander scored 1708 with an average of 61 which included six hundreds. The tally of 1708 is the third-highest by any batter in a single calendar year, behind Mohammad Yousuf (1788) in 2006 and Sir Viv Richards (1710) in 1976.
“The fact that he’s scoring the runs he is, is great for the team, It would be great if we could help him out with that and build some partnerships with him, and score a few more runs around him.” he opined.
“But Joe is a great cricketer, he’s got a great cricket brain. I think his record as England captain is pretty good, as far as I’m aware. I definitely feel like Joe will continue.” he further added.
When Woakes was asked about the future of England Coach Chris Silverwood, he said, “Who am I to talk about people’s futures other than my own, to be brutally honest? We have two more games and we want to show a lot of character, a lot of fight. The group of players, the management and the staff we have out here have the backing of the players to hopefully put things right, over the next two games in particular.”
Chris Woakes played in the first two matches of the series and could pick only 3 wickets with an average of 76. The fourth test will begin on January 5 in Sydney.
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