England captain Joe Root admits he was “frustrated” and “angry” after England’s capitulation in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide.
The tourists are two-nil down in the series and need to win all three remaining matches to regain the Ashes, something achieved just once before in the history of Test cricket.
Root made headlines after the Adelaide match for criticising the lengths of his bowlers, comments that came back to bite him when Ricky Ponting and Ian Chappell both pointed out that his job as captain was to fix that during the match, not complain about it afterwards.
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Mark Taylor believes Root’s comments may have caused a division in the English dressing room between the captain and his bowlers, hardly a positive sign as the tourists attempt to save face at the MCG on Boxing Day.
But Root says he’s expecting his spray to lead to an improved performance.
“It did come easy to be angry at the end of the last game because of the situation we’re in and the manner in which we lost,” he said.
“I’ll always try to look at things with a level, pragmatic approach but I don’t think you could after the way we’ve played those last two games. I expect a response from everyone this week.
“There was a lot of frustration. Purely because of the basic mistakes that we’ve been making. And we’ve done it twice in a row.
“We can’t afford to be losing eight wickets for 70 or 80 runs. It is not good enough. It is not the level that an England Test team should be playing at. The guys know that and they’re very aware of that.”
England has been tipped to make as many as four changes for Boxing Day, with the form of opening batters Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed of particular concern.
Zak Crawley is expected to open at the MCG, although it’s not clear who he would replace, with both Burns (51 runs at an average of 12.75) and Hameed (58 at 14.50) contributing very little in either Brisbane or Adelaide.
Root said despite the series scoreline, he’s been happy with preparations for the third Test.
“Their work ethic is very good and you’ll have seen how guys practice and how long they bat for in the nets, but sometimes I think we can be smarter about what we are practising and how we are practising,” he said.
“And understanding that batting, in my opinion, it’s about making good decisions for long periods of time. It’s not about hitting a million balls and feeling a million dollars.
“Sometimes it’s just about finding a way of staying there until it becomes a little bit easier. And I think we need to harness that mentality a little bit more.”
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