If you were Joe Root

[PhatBoy]

What would you do as captain?

I went into the series not rating his captaincy and that hasn’t changed but by the end of it I did think he was between a rock and a hard place.

He and Ben Stokes at his best are the only batsmen in that side who bat with a plan and any attitude or specific approach. He can’t make his batsmen develop backbone short of leading by example and I feel he’s tried to do this. If I was him I would want Bairstow in my team because Bairstow at least has a plan even if he doesn’t have the technical skills to always put it into place.

He has only 3 bowlers that he can go to and say ‘bend your back for me’ in Wood, Broad and stokes and one of them isn’t fit and another - Broad - tends to get carried away with his own little battles on the field. His two most reliable bowlers are Robinson and Anderson - one of them isn’t fit enough to bowl himself into the ground when root says ‘give me an hour of your best’ and the other is 38 and any lengthy efforts are almost bound to be followed by a test on the sidelines.

His fielders are poor and not energetic and it doesn’t matter how good your field settings are if they can’t catch the chances they create.

Good captains - and again I’m not saying he is one - can overcome a lack of class sometimes through innovation and reliance on the attitude of their players wanting to give everything every time they step onto the field.

His players don’t.

So what does he do?

 

[Broar]

He and Ben Stokes at his best are the only batsmen in that side who bat with a plan and any attitude or specific approach. He can’t make his batsmen develop backbone short of leading by example and I feel he’s tried to do this.

He tried but failed miserably. I don't think anyone expected the likes of Burns/Hameed/Pope to succeed and how these three played was really the worst case scenario. But the likes of Root, Malan, Stokes and Butler all failed terribly, yea they were fractionally better than others but these are you senior players. These were the guys who needed to score runs if England were going to win but no 100s between the lot of them, none of them averaged more than 32 it was disgraceful. But like always they'll pot the openers, the bowlers, the selectors, anyone else but take some personal responsibility and dig in and the cycle will continue to repeat.

 

[PhatBoy]

He tried but failed miserably. I don't think anyone expected the likes of Burns/Hameed/Pope to succeed and how these three played was really the worst case scenario. But the likes of Root, Malan, Stokes and Butler all failed terribly, yea they were fractionally better than others but these are you senior players. These were the guys who needed to score runs if England were going to win but no 100s between the lot of them, none of them averaged more than 32 it was disgraceful. But like always they'll pot the openers, the bowlers, the selectors, anyone else but take some personal responsibility and dig in and the cycle will continue to repeat.

Yeah I don’t think averaging 50 across a 100 test career is going to happen if you’re not trying or taking personal responsibility when you fail. Hence after a period of curiously failing to cross three figures for an extended time Root responded by hitting close to 2000 runs in a calendar year

Pot him technically all you want he was obviously well short of his best but you don’t get to that position in the first place if you aren’t a player who analyses and critiques their own performance

Excusing others because they aren’t expected to score runs doesn’t help either. If you’re picked to play test cricket you’re expected to succeed. Marcus Harris doesn’t escape criticism on the basis of people expecting him not to
Dominate

 

[Teen Wolf]

"I nearly fell off my seat when I heard (Root's comments about his bowlers pitching the ball too short)," Ponting told cricket.com.au.

"Whose job is it then to make them change? Why are you captain then?

"If you can't influence your bowlers on what length to bowl, what are you doing on the field?"

 

[PhatBoy]

"I nearly fell off my seat when I heard (Root's comments about his bowlers pitching the ball too short)," Ponting told cricket.com.au.

"Whose job is it then to make them change? Why are you captain then?

"If you can't influence your bowlers on what length to bowl, what are you doing on the field?"

That kind of goes with my point as well - for arguments’ sake let’s say he has asked them to bowl fuller, and they haven’t: what recourse is he left with?

The obvious takeaway from such a scenario is that a better captain will make them want to do whatever he says. And that’s fair enough. But if you’re a big enough ******* that you won’t bowl how your test match captain instructs you to bowl tactically, what are you doing on the field in the first place?

 

[Teen Wolf]

That kind of goes with my point as well - for arguments’ sake let’s say he has asked them to bowl fuller, and they haven’t: what recourse is he left with?

The obvious takeaway from such a scenario is that a better captain will make them want to do whatever he says. And that’s fair enough. But if you’re a big enough ******* that you won’t bowl how your test match captain instructs you to bowl tactically, what are you doing on the field in the first place?

It's not like dealing with *******s is a problem unique to Root's situation. That's a key part of the job. Captains who can't figure out a personal style to effectively handle such problems should resign.

 

[frankrizzo]

Root isnt a great skipper but root is the best skipper(legit options for skipper) they have so what else can you say?

The selfish and probably smart move for root would be stand down and let the captaincy destroy stokes while he just puts all his focus on grinding out runs.

 

[Seedsfan]

That’s a bit harsh on the batting line up Crawley looked very good and Bairstow managed to have success. Malan was there abouts, Stokes was probably one of their worst

 

[The Falcon Strike]

If I was Joe root - I’d definitely get my sperm frozen

 

[The Passenger]

Stokes was probably one of their worst

On this tour he struggled for sure and the expectations were unrealistic after such a lay off. I guess Stokes has produced so many back to the wall performances that a lot of people thought he'd just do it again.

But I'd be pretty reluctant to throw too much shade at one of two proven match winners with the bat.

The plan to have him bowl like a hitman was a disaster and that's not even being a hindsight hero. It was openly stated by many on here and I read/heard a few commentators say they felt it was a sure fire way to re-injure him and lo and behold.

 

[bluebob1]

Set some fielders not on the legside fence when Leach bowls to give him a chance. The fields he set to Lynch were terrible didnt even give the poor bloke a chance of building some pressure to get a wicket - easy singles everywhere and no chance for Lynch to bowl at offstump since there was no fielders on that side. I get that thats how English spinners tend to focus on leg stump and it might work in England but doesnt work here.

Pick an attacking opening batsman (like Trescothick back in the day) to put some pressure on the Aussie bowlers but Root doesnt even pick the team so he would have had little say in that one. Even if they could belt 20 it would have been better than the current set up.

Not too much he can do when he has one very good batsman (himself), an allrounder who is hit and miss and had no preparation, 1 barely passable batter (Bairstow) and the rest are simply not good enough. The batters dont get tested in county cricket against genuine pace and consequently fail when they face it in Australia.

 

[PhatBoy]

On this tour he struggled for sure and the expectations were unrealistic after such a lay off. I guess Stokes has produced so many back to the wall performances that a lot of people thought he'd just do it again.

But I'd be pretty reluctant to throw too much shade at one of two proven match winners with the bat.

The plan to have him bowl like a hitman was a disaster and that's not even being a hindsight hero. It was openly stated by many on here and I read/heard a few commentators say they felt it was a sure fire way to re-injure him and lo and behold.

Even allowing for how average he was with the bat he looked as I said like one of only two players who went out there with a visible plan on how he was going to approach each particular innings. Bairstow in Sydney looked like he was obviously trying to be positive, and Crawley looked the same. Hameed, Malan - even allowing for his couple of decent innings - Pope, Burns, and most of Buttler’s innings…. It just looked like they went out there with no method in mind other than to just be there. A ‘just don’t get out’ mindset is fine if you have that ‘over my dead body’ attitude, and an attacking approach is fine as well if you plan what sort of bowling you’ll attack and what sort of shots you are going to employ. But there looked like no commitment to any sort of approach.

 

[PhatBoy]

The most hard hitting thing root has done from a leadership perspective is to make the comments he’s made in the last 24 hours about county cricket - it was good to see him speak so openly

 

[frankrizzo]

He doesnt have much to lose now, im sure he doesnt want to quit the job himself but wouldnt exactly be devastated if the ecb made the call for him so he might as well say what he needs to say, he wears the criticism for the losses so he should have a big say in how the test side is run.

 

[Seedsfan]

On this tour he struggled for sure and the expectations were unrealistic after such a lay off. I guess Stokes has produced so many back to the wall performances that a lot of people thought he'd just do it again.

But I'd be pretty reluctant to throw too much shade at one of two proven match winners with the bat.

The plan to have him bowl like a hitman was a disaster and that's not even being a hindsight hero. It was openly stated by many on here and I read/heard a few commentators say they felt it was a sure fire way to re-injure him and lo and behold.

He averages 35 for a reason, he can play some incredible innings but doesn’t have the level of consistency

 

[frankrizzo]

Stokes is an amazing allrounder but if he is your second best batsmen your team is screwed simple as that.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Problem is who else is there, everyone will say Stokes but honestly how much do you want to put on him? He's already one of your best bowlers and bats!

 

[cricketnut14]

if i was joe root - i'd be kindly asking the ICC to fixture their home summer with tests v afghanistan and bangladesh

but on a serious note their bowling looks ok.

they'll need to find some batsman and back a wicketkeeper in.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

if i was joe root - i'd be kindly asking the ICC to fixture their home summer with tests v afghanistan and bangladesh

but on a serious note their bowling looks ok.

they'll need to find some batsman and back a wicketkeeper in.

You seen Bangladesh lately? They'd belt England on form.

 

[cricketnut14]

You seen Bangladesh lately? They'd belt England on form.

ha fair call was gonna say ireland, but last they played ireland, they nearly stitched them up as well

 

[LukeParkerno1]

ha fair call was gonna say ireland, but last they played ireland, they nearly stitched them up as well

This England side has been terrible for a good 2 years. They have issues everywhere. Root scoring 1700 runs last year and the next best being Burns who is terrible should tell you something. Bowlers are still carried by 2 that are near 40 years old. Stone and Archer can't stay fit.

 

[Big Bryza]

If I was Joe root - I’d definitely get my sperm frozen

Scott Boland was rooting him repeatedly.

 

[frankrizzo]

This England side has been terrible for a good 2 years.

Well yeah you could say why did it take an away series loss (in a place where england had lost 9 out of last 10) to start hearing honest talk about state of english cricket, surely the time to panic was back to back home losses?

Egnland hadnt lost a home series for something like 8 years but they lost two in one summer that really was a bigger deal than losing in australia where england nearly always lose.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Well yeah you could say why did it take an away series loss (in a place where england had lost 9 out of last 10) to start hearing honest talk about state of english cricket, surely the time to panic was back to back home losses?

Egnland hadnt lost a home series for something like 8 years but they lost two in one summer that really was a bigger deal than losing in australia where england nearly always lose.

Worryingly relying on Root averaging 80 is a huge issue. His year last year isn't sustainable. Then what else is there? You relying on Burns and his pathetic technique or Stokes coming off once a series? Their batting is paper thin, their two great fast bowlers have papers over the cracks for far too long.

 

[frankrizzo]

I think another harsh reality is england still seem to think they have a clear advantage if the ball is nipping around a bit but we retained the ashes in england, nz and india both won in england and even in this series it was often overcast with pitches that were green tinged it was perfect for their quicks but reality is our quicks are better than theirs in those conditions right now and our batsmen while still not great are better than their lot in those conditions now so are nz and india.

England have no clear advantage vs top ranked sides in those conditions so they need to stop producing them in the county game and maybe then they produce quicks and spinners who can adapt to more surfaces, but hard part is accepting they arent the clear leaders anymore when its nipping around not if their batsmen play it even worse than the opposition.