England Test captain Joe Root has hit back to Michael Vaughan’s comments and said that the opinion from other people doesn’t matter to him. Notable that in September Vaughan wrote in the Telegraph that Joe Root won’t be considered among great England captains until he wins an Ashes series.
England lost the Ashes by 0-4 as the pressure on captain Joe Root and coach Chris Silverwood has been looming large if the duo will continue in their positions.
Joe Root has been captaining England in Test cricket since 2017
“I realise I might cop a little bit of flak for this but Joe will not go down as a great captain until he beats Australia, probably even in his own mind, and who knows, his third crack at it this winter might be his last,” Michael Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
“Not many get four bites at the cherry. When you receive that great phone call to offer you the England job, your sole focus is on how to beat Australia. You want to win the Ashes more than anything and anyone who disagrees is lying,” he further added.
But Joe Root dismissed the claim then by saying his entire focus is to win the series against India and opinions from people outside the England setup ain’t relevant for him.
“It’s something you’re desperate to do in your career. But in terms of what other people think of me as captain, it’s sort of irrelevant. My job is to do the best job I can for the period I have the role. I’ll continue to give everything to the team and at the end of it, if that’s not good enough for some people, I’ll still have done all I can and I can be proud of that,” Joe Root said.
Root’s position as captain is under the scanner after the Ashes debacle. Meanwhile, Root blamed England’s white-ball cricket for poor performance in Ashes. But England’s white-ball captain Eoin Morgan hit back Root’s claims about England’s focus in limited-overs cricket.
“People that use that as an excuse don’t watch cricket. Test match cricket has always been the priority ‒ it’s the format for our elite players. Obviously, times at the moment have been tough down in Australia during the Ashes but they always are. We’ve lost the last two series 4-0. It’s laughable to point the finger at the Hundred. The Hundred is an unbelievable success,” Eoin Morgan said.
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