DON’T DITCH OLD GUARD, URGES BEATEN SKIPPER

JOE ROOT envisages senior trio Alastair Cook, James Anderson and Stuart Broad remaining England colleagues in 2018 and has urged against a post-Ashes overhaul. Despite chronic dips in form from his predecessor as captain Cook, Broad, and his recently-appointed deputy Anderson — who is 35 — Root argued the Test team would be better in the long term for their retention. The last rites of an innings defeat at the WACA, which ensured a rapid relinquishing of the urn, led to speculation that Cook, 33 on Christmas Day, is nearing the end, while Kevin Pietersen demanded unsubtly on Twitter that Broad should be put out to pasture. However, Root countered: ‘They have a huge amount of experience and they do offer a lot to this group. ‘I see no reason why throughout the rest of this series they can’t do that again. It is very important that me and Trevor (Bayliss) don’t panic or make hasty decisions despite three games which haven’t gone in our favour. We’re realistic about where we are as a side and what is going to be most important is making sure we field a team that is going to give us the best chance to win.’ Of Cook, Root added: ‘The fact he has done it so many times before, the fact he is a very stubborn guy who likes proving people wrong — that could come into it.’ And Root refused to blame defeat on the off-field shenanigans that have dogged this most challenging of debut tours for the captain. ‘I’m not going to make excuses about things that are out of our control. We knew he (Ben Stokes) wasn’t going to be on the tour from the start and I was confident this group of players could come out here and win,’ Root said. ‘Unfortunately, it’s not turned out like that but there is an opportunity in two very big games at two fantastic venues to do something special with this squad. That’s got to be our focus now.’ The biggest gulf between the teams is in the bowling attacks, emphasised midway through the decisive defeat at the WACA. Twenty-four hours after Australia had blasted out England’s final six wickets for 35 runs, they piled up 346 for one on the same surface. Root said: ‘We have a very skilful, talented bowling unit and pace is probably one area we haven’t got lots of resources in as a side. You can’t worry about that. That’s one of their strengths in these conditions, we had to try to out-skill them and we weren’t able to do it in these first three games.’ Meanwhile, Trevor Bayliss insisted he has the ability to revive England’s Test fortunes. The Perth defeat extended England’s sorry away record in Tests under Bayliss to won 3, drawn 3, lost 11. Asked if he was still the right man to coach the team, the 54-year-old said: ‘I think I am, you may not, but I think our performances have gone pretty well over the past couple of years. We’ve just got to get better, whether it’s with bat or ball, especially in foreign conditions.’