Joe Root calls on England's players to seize chance and make individual contribution

Sport is full of contrasts and none more so than that between the fortunes of Joe Root’s own batting and of his team over the course of the last year. England’s captain scored more runs in the first six weeks of 2021 than any of his England charges managed in the entire calendar year. So, as we enter the first few weeks of 2022, Root, it would appear, has had enough of being the only batter seemingly standing up for his country in Test cricket.

“Whoever gets the opportunity to play in this game has that chance to put in those individual scores and partnerships that set up a game,” said a weary Root two days ahead of the fourth Ashes Test. “We have been shown by Australia how to do that and this is a chance to do it ourselves. We have to do it our own way and not be something we are not but we have to manage it better than we have done so far and take the chance.”

Nevertheless, it’s déjà-vu for England’s captain, who is now on his third tour of Australia and on each occasion has found himself in a side that’s 3-0 down going into the fourth Test. So dire is England’s away Ashes record over Root’s career that he has lost all but one Test Down Under.

“We’re trying not to make the same mistakes,” insisted Root, in an effort to explain what England were doing differently to previous tours. “We found ourselves in a situation here where we have under delivered with the amount of runs we scored and have to build those partnerships again. [We have to] get something for the bowlers to work with.”

“If we can marry those up at the same time and sustain pressure, handle it better for longer then we can manage pressure points in the game better, like that tricky period in the second innings of the last game. We just have to be better at getting through that hour and it is about managing those situations better.”

While you can hear the sense of frustration in the England skipper’s comments, the stubbornness that England have the correct approach, and the correct personnel, persists. Personal accountability has been a strong theme throughout this tour, and previous ones, and yet, the same results keep on cropping up.

“We have to put in better performances and see that as an opportunity,” continued Root, who took that opportunity across his 29 innings in 2021, scoring 1,708 runs at an average of 61. Rory Burns was next best with 530, at an average of 28. “Don't see that as a heavy burden but a chance to make big Test runs as a batter or take wickets with ball in hand and walk away from this trip with something.”

“More than anything you have to stand up and fill those voids where they are. It does not come just from me. Every single player has to muck in to give everyone the best chance to train as well as they can. Training looked very different yesterday and today and it is an opportunity for us to help each other out, get tight and stand up in a bit of adversity.”

Adversity has been the buzzword throughout this tour and already it seems that the off-field difficulties, of weather, Covid, coaching shortages or whatever else has been out of England’s control, will become the peg that Root, his players, the coaches and administrators will hang this Ashes debacle on. Not the personal accountability that Root has called for.

“With the amount of coaches we have had missing, it has made things disjointed and challenging but it is a chance to come together and work together,” said Root. “Human beings work together and help each other and we tried to prepare as well as we can do and stand up in a bit of adversity. And we must use that in a positive way when we get out on the field.”

Same old story, same old excuses?