‘Little boy’ stands up to the critics
ENGLAND captain Joe Root has smashed suggestions he is a soft captain and declared his team is not spent as an Ashes force despite having surrendered the urn.
The visitors refused to bow to calls for change after three unsuccessful Tests, bringing in only bowler Tom Curran to make his Test debut as a replacement for injured quick Craig Overton.
But it was not a result of being soft on underperforming players and Root bristled when reminded former Aussie captain Ricky Ponting had said the English captain looked like a “little boy” after the crushing third Test defeat in Perth.
Ponting said he believed Root lacked the hard edge to rescue his team from the position they found themselves in, but the English captain said he had, and would, make the tough calls when needed.
“He’s entitled to his opinion but he doesn’t spend any time in our dressing room, and doesn’t spend much time around the squad, so I am obviously going to disagree with that,” he said of the criticisms.
“I’m sure if you asked of the guys in the camp . . . they would back me up on that as well.
“I don’t think I go about things as a little boy. I have my own way of doing things. I think it’s important to not try to be something you are not.
“But I know that there are occasions where you might have to be quite strong in front of the group, the whole group. I might not appear to do that out on the field but there are certainly times where I know I can do that, and I have done that.”