Skipper tells flops to raise their game

JOE ROOT has told his England flops that their Ashes places are on the line.

With the Wisden Trophy and the series wrapped up by the West

Indies, Root is in charge of a squad and a tour in crisis.

And he is using the Ashes as a carrot to try to get a performance out of a team that could be missing Ben Stokes with a heel injury and which would mean playing both Keaton Jennings and Joe Denly. There is likely to be a recall for speedster Mark

Wood on what is said to be the quickest from DEAN WILSON pitch of the three England will have in St Lucia played on, while Jonny Bairstow will take the gloves from Ben Foakes. find ways to score consistently, managing

Root said: “There is plenty to play for risk. The art of Test cricket is being in this game especially off the back of able to do that around the world and those two performances. being consistent wherever you go.

“There is an Ashes around the corner “So it has been quite hard to pinpoint

and it is an opportunity for those guys exactly where we’ve gone wrong.

to show how good they are and put in “But on the whole we’ve played a few

some proper performances. loose shots, especially early in our

“It has been frustrating. You look at innings, and not given ourselves the the players and individually you have to opportunity to go out and make big have that responsibility, find ways of scores.” Just like they were in Australia, exploiting the surfaces in front of you, England have also been unsettled by the pace and hostility of the Windies attack, with Shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roach doing most of the damage.

They could be joined by giant Jamaican Oshane Thomas who has been taken around the islands in this series as cover but could replace Jason Holder today.

“He has good pace and brings some aggression,” said stand-in skipper Kraigg Brathwaite.

“In the nets he’s uncomfortable to face and obviously England didn’t play the pace as they should, so obviously he is very aggressive.”

Root is one of the key batsmen who will need to handle the heat better than they have done so far in the series.

He added: “We know that someone like Shannon can be quite hostile at times.

“A number of guys have had success against pace attacks in the past.

“Managing hostile spells of bowling is part of the job and something we have done well.

“You have to get yourself in, get used to the conditions, and find ways of batting long.

“That’s a big challenge for us, making sure that we manage that really well and seeing improvement throughout.”