DON’T BURN ROOT OUT!

After a disastrous tour, England must save their young skipper from himself

THE sight of Joe Root lying stricken in the SCG dressing room yesterday at the moment Australia sealed one last emphatic win was the perfect metaphor for an Ashes series where just about everything went wrong for England.

From the moment Ben Stokes cast a giant cloud over the series by becoming embroiled in an incident outside a Bristol bar, we’ve had off-field drinking controversies, a ‘head-butt’, unacceptable sledging and even suggestions of match-fixing and ball-tampering. This Ashes had just about every scandal going.

What it did not have was much hardfought or memorable cricket as Australia’s superiority in their own conditions proved every bit as decisive as those of us who feared the worst from the start imagined.

And it ended with England captain Root initially in hospital exhausted with a viral complaint that must have been connected to spending all but six overs of a fourth day on the field where temperatures topped 40°C.

Root returned to the SCG to resume his innings in company with Jonny Bairstow once Moeen Ali completed his tour to forget by falling to Nathan Lyon for a seventh time, but he could not carry on after being taken ill again at lunch.

If England are ever again going to compete against the best overseas they will need their still-fledgling captain to lead by the sort of example his opposite number Steve Smith provided when becoming the player of the series.

It must be hoped Root’s nightmare tour, which ended with him suffering an illness that can be exacerbated by stress or being run down, does not cause permanent damage to such an important England asset.

Jimmy Anderson, the one England bowler who could be pleased with his performance in a series where Australia have outgunned and outspun them, took Root’s place for a low-key presentation ceremony that summed up an uninspiring series.

He then offered Root his full support. ‘I imagine it’s been extremely difficult for him,’ said Anderson, made vice- captain when Stokes became unselectable. ‘Ask any captain who’s toured Australia. It’s not an easy place to come and play, espethreat cially when you’re on the wrong end of the result.

‘But the way he has carried himself has been a real credit to him. He’s been fantastic the whole way through. He’s level-headed and hasn’t looked down at any stage. He led the guys brilliantly on and off the field and should be proud of what he’s done on this trip.’

That may be so but when Root recovers from illness, and that blow to his right index finger from Mitchell Starc on the fourth evening, and takes his place in England’s 50- over team he will have to take stock.

It is a concern that he is so insistent on carrying on playing Twenty20 cricket, presumably in the Indian Premier League, when England management have considered the shortest form of the game as the ideal time to rest him.

Root will be suffering from burnout as well as gastroenteritis if he carries on playing so much cricket. He needs to put the bulk of his efforts into Test cricket if England are going to start planning for the next away Ashes series now.

It was difficult to agree with Anderson when he said yesterday that England’s Test cricket is on the up. ‘We have improved over the last 18 months and have definitely made strides in the right direction,’ he said.

The fact is, with this 4-0 defeat, England have now lost 18 Tests under Trevor Bayliss.

That is not to say Bayliss’s position as coach should be under now but the Australian’s methods, which centre on getting players to relax and take responsibility for themselves, have worked better in white-ball cricket.

The positivity so important to England’s limited- overs renaissance has been a negative here in what Anderson described as an ‘ attritional’ series because no batsman other than Alastair Cook has had the patience to replicate the extreme concentration and hunger for runs shown by Smith.

It is also extraordinary that such a well-resourced England team have been without fast-bowling and spin coaches for a large chunk of this Ashes because of the short-term deals of both Shane Bond and Saqlain Mushtaq.

New fast-bowling coach Chris Silverwood cannot start quickly enough, while Saqlain needs to be tied down to a full-time deal rather than just a hundred days a year.

Anderson caused raised eyebrows early in the series when he criticised the coaches for the poor bowling at the start of the Adelaide Test that made a mockery of Root’s decision to bowl first.

When asked about that yesterday he said: ‘We bowled too short in the first innings but it’s sometimes difficult out there in the heat of it to know if you’re bowling in the right areas. That’s where the backroom staff come in. You need feedback as the day goes on rather than a day later.

‘It’s no dig at the management. They make mistakes like we do on the field.’

The good news is Anderson has been, at 35, as good as ever here and if both he and Stuart Broad keep performing well in home conditions over the next 18 months England will be firm favourites to win back the Ashes next year.

‘It doesn’t feel like there should be a big upheaval,’ added the vicecaptain. ‘Other series have been absolutely disastrous but this doesn’t feel like that. We’ve played some good cricket, every game has gone to the fifth day and we weren’t blown away in any game.

‘We’re hurting and we know we’ve got to improve in a lot of areas but we’ll all be looking in the mirror in the next few weeks.’

When English cricket starts gazing in that mirror it must recognise that the type of players needed to win the Ashes in Australia in 2021 — like a promising leg- spinner in Mason Crane — must be identified now and stuck with.

But above all English cricket needs to protect Joe Root. And he needs to protect himself.