Former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting has taken a pot shot at England's current skipper, Joe Root, posing the question as to why he is captain.
Thus far, the performance of the England team in the Ashes series taking place in Australia has been abysmal. Apart from a couple of decent innings from Root and Dawid Malan, England have been utterly outplayed in all departments - batsmen like rabbits in the headlights, dropped catches, poor bowling strategy, inexplicable selection - all issues which a truly involved and competent captain would be addressing. But not, it seems, Joe Root.
Comparing Root's demeanour and behaviour on the field with that of Mike Brearley, even if Brearley was around 40 years ago, is educational. While Brearley was involved with his players, moving around the field at speed, talking at length with his bowlers as they walked back to their marks and racing back to his own position before they delivered, Root seems, literally, rooted to the spot. He stands at slip looking miserable and constantly bemused; rather than exhibiting confidence and energy, he looks fearful and worn out. Compared with Brearley and others of his predecessors, Ray Illingworth and Michael Vaughan spring immediately to mind, Root is nowhere in sight.
Yes, he is a fine batsman, but being a fine batsman does not make him a good captain. In truth, he is not a captain although this is only one of England's problems. Geriatric fast bowlers, poor fielding and a weak batting lineup don't help either. Some have complained that the England player's had too little preparation for this series, but whose fault is that ? Not the players themselves, for sure, but a system which tries to shoe horn far too many test matches, ODIs and 20-20s into too short a period, while having abandoned the once traditional round of games against local sides, in the case of a tour of Australia, 3 or 4-day matches against the various states and an assortment of other preparatory games. In that system, the touring players had every chance to become acclimatised, but no more. Today's players are simply thrown into test matches with little more than net practice.
The consequence of this, added to the astonishing mess that is English domestic cricket, is what we've seen in Australia in the last 2 or 3 weeks - the utter humiliation of England by a dominant and confident Australian team. England's problems go deep and a 5-0 whitewash is surely on the cards, unless the weather, or COVID, intervene. Maybe that will stir something amongst the moribund mob that make up the ECB, though I doubt it.
No comments:
Post a Comment