Root still believes despite latest defeat

Joe Root admits his England team is continuing to underperform, but has urged supporters to “keep the faith” nonetheless.

Under Root’s captaincy, England took their alarming losing sequence to six defeats in eight Tests as they succumbed limply by nine wickets to Pakistan in the first match of the home summer.

The Yorkshireman was not hiding away from evident problems after England were dispatched early on day four at Lord’s–wheretheywerebowled out for 184 after he chose to bat and then could set Pakistan only 64 to win after mustering 242 at their second attempt.

It was the continuation of a miserable theme, thoroughly established through last winter’s 4-0 Ashes trouncing and setback in New Zealand – and all the more concerning that it has followed them home.

“We know we’re under-performing ... we’ve not performed to anywhere we need to,” said Root, whose hosts must win at Headingley in the second NatWest Test to avoid series defeat.

“It’s very difficult to take as a talented group of players ... (but) we fully believe we can get to where we want to get to.”

Asked for his message to those who follow England in the hope of improvement, Root added: “Keep the faith, keep trusting, keep believing.

“We’ve got to ... just find a way.” He insists, despite obvious failings in the middle, England are doing everything right in practice.

“We worked a lot harder – the intensity in practice was definitely better,” he said.

“That’s going to make us a better team, but it doesn’t happen overnight.

“We put in some really hard work, and we’ve got to continue to do that and keep believing that will get us to where we want to get to.

“We have looked at things, and had a really good chat about how we wanted to approach this summer – we’ve got to give it time to work.”