POMS’ INNER WAR
ROOT AND ANDERSON AT ODDS ON TEST EVE
ENGLAND enters the third Test at war with itself over who is to blame for its shambolic Ashes campaign.
Captain Joe Root has delivered two verbal upper cuts to vice-captain James Anderson as the tourists lurch through a series of off-field dramas entering the WACA Test.
Root’s first swing at his deputy came when he was asked whether Anderson, as a key leader, should have set a better example the night Ben Duckett poured a beer over him in Perth.
“Yeah, maybe a little bit,’’ he said. “A lot of people have spoken and given their views. His focus now has to be about leading that bowling attack and doing the right things on the field.’’
Anderson, nicknamed “Teflon Jimmy’’ in some quarters for his ability to escape off-field scrutiny, was also in the gun for writing in his column for London’s Telegraph newspaper.
Anderson claimed England’s poor bowling length [too short] on the first morning of the Adelaide Test was an oversight not simply from the players but team coaches who, he claimed, “could have had an input too, which is frustrating’’.
Root said players had to take ultimate responsibility for their performances.
“I think it is probably slightly harsh to put the blame on the coaches,’’ Root said.
“That might not be the way he wanted that to come across, but it did. Ultimately the guys on the field are the ones who are responsible for what we are doing out there. We have to be smarter and act quicker.
“We have to be thinking as a group and adapt.
“We have to learn from it and get it right here.’’
The apparent tension among England’s hierarchy follows an observation from former Australian seamer Stuart Clark that Anderson and Stuart Broad showed a lack of respect for their captain by bowling “half rat power’’ in the first innings in Adelaide after their captain elected to bowl.
England has had a rugged week. Coach Trevor Bayliss warned players they could be sent home if there were further disciplinary breaches.
Broad and Anderson will play their 100th Test together in Perth. They may not quite be the forces they were a few years back but remain canny performers with the ability to outwit any member of the Australian top order who drops his guard.
England is likely to name an unchanged side, although Jonny Bairstow may be promoted from No.7 to six in the batting order and Moeen Ali dropped down a place.
The one certainty for England is that there will be no repeat of Root’s controversial call to bowl first in Adelaide on a Perth deck that looks likely to yield big totals.
Despite the ground being famed for being a haven for fast bowlers, spinner Nathan Lyon has been a key man in English discussions, for they are yet to find a way of combating his crafty off-spin.
“We need to have a clear way of trying to put him under more pressure and manipulate the strike better and try and rotate things and not get stuck down his end,’’ Root said.