Joe got 5-8 ...that says it all
SILVERWOOD MAY SEEK ICC ACTION
JOE ROOT and Chris Silverwood are considering making a formal complaint to the ICC over the state of the ThirdTest pitch inAhmedabad. While both the England coach, below, and captain realise they were beaten by the better side, they believe the condition of pitch had an undue influence on the match. And a two-day contest in which Root’s part-time off-spin was genuinely deemed to be the greatest wicket-taking threat on the second day also speaks volumes about the quality of the surface. “Joe got 5-8,” said Silverwood. “It probably pushed us to the extremes of what most of our players, if any, have experienced.We will be talking about certain things behind the scenes. “Joe and I have to sit down, have a conversation and see where we go with it. “I’m not saying we’ve just got to accept things, but it’s a conversation between myself and Joe at the moment. “We do have to get better on these pitches and we do have to accept there’s places where we could have improved. “But at the same time, we are disappointed that we are sat here when there should be three days of cricket left.” Silverwood and Root now know they have to roll up their sleeves and find improvement. There are four or possibly five more matches to come away from home this year and they are all against India or Australia. And while England had been on a six-game away winning streak before their defeat in Chennai, their record against those two plus New Zealand, who are in the World Test Championship final, makes for some tough reading with just one win in 25, with 17 defeats. This is a trend that requires reversing and, with the Ashes on the horizon, the question is whether or not they have the time to improve it this week, or even by the end of the year. “We completely accept we’re not the finished article,” said Silverwood. “We have to learn from what is in front of us and, if we do that, we’ll buck the trend and start winning.”