Root’s players look so ‘fragile’

ENGLAND’S Test side face crunch time at Headingley labelled a “fragile team who have forgotten how to win”.

Former assistant England coach Paul Farbrace feels the problems facing skipper Joe Root (above) and his men, as they prepare to try to bounce back from their Lord’s lament, are likely to be more mental than technical.

The dramatic final-day meltdown in the second Test saw India take a 1-0 lead with three games remaining.

And home side’s collapse has left huge question marks over the strength of character of both their batsmen and bowlers.

Dawid Malan has been recalled after three years to bat at No.3 while Haseeb Hameed will open the batting as both Dominic Sibley and Zak Crawley have been left out for the game which starts on Wednesday.

Farbrace hopes the batsmen and bowlers who struggled so badly on that final day at HQ show the guts and guile in adversity and prove they have long Test careers ahead of them.

But Warwickshire’s director of cricket insists the lack of any County Championship action, which could have helped the out-ofform batsmen turn things around, is a major worry.

He said: “This England side seem to me to have forgotten how to win. There is a clear lack of confidence. You can’t expect to win all the time but this team definitely look fragile. It came down to the Indians knowing and expecting to win. I turned up on the final day at Lord’s expecting England to.

“But it was the sheer belief of the tourists which showed more than anything else. Once they got the momentum they were all over England.

“Normally you would have liked to have seen those guys who failed at Lord’s go straight back to play a Championship game, work hard and get some runs under their belts.

Horrible

“The bowlers were guilty at Lord’s of trying to force wickets and slip into that horrible routine.

“They bowl brilliantly to get seven or eight wickets, hitting off stump.

“The pads and stumps are in the game but then suddenly they take the stumps out of the game and the only way we are going to get them out is via a top edge! The bowlers must take responsibility for that.

“It’s not just down to Joe Root as the skipper.

“The bowlers have the ball in their hand and they have to say this is how I am going to get the batsman out... not looking at Rooty and asking him where do you want me to get him out.

“It’s a tough slump to get out of and it’s the biggest challenge facing Rooty and Chris Silverwood.”