Captain Root calls for fans to ‘keep the faith’

First test: England slump to dismal sixth defeat in eight Tests

Joe Root admits his England team is continuing to under-perform 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 – where they were bowled 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 1-0 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 – and I think we went about things the right way. “We’ve got to give it time to work.” He and coach Trevor Bayliss do not appear tempted to change the team significantly for the second Test at Headingley on Friday – although in a TV interview the latter’s frustration was clear.

Root said: “It would be very easy to go into next week feeling sorry for ourselves and think there’s no way forward for us – but absolutely there is.”

Bayliss added: “This was nowhere near good enough for Test level .

“To be bowled out for 180 and 240 is simply not good enough.

“The batters have to have a good, hard, long look at themselves.”

Pakistan, by contrast, could scarcely be faulted.

Their captain Sarfraz Ahmed believes victory over Ireland the previous week served as ideal preparation.

“If you see Malahide and here, we improved a lot,” he said.

“It was a perfect Test match, before the big series.”

Dejected England captain Joe Root. He remains confident his team can turn things round for the second Test.