Root insists England will stick together after crushing loss
JOE ROOT admitted that his England side had been ‘outplayed and outperformed’ in their humiliating Wisden Trophy defeat by the West Indies.
‘It’s very disappointing, we came here to win and to find ourselves out of it with a game to go is hard to take,’ said Root.
England were bowled out after tea for 132, leaving the Windies needing just 14 to win and John Campbell wrapped up victory with a match to spare.
‘We have been outplayed, outperformed and we have to take that on the chin,’ continued Root. ‘We have to learn some lessons from it.
‘It was definitely a bowlerfriendly surface. I wouldn’t say it was a fair contest between bat and ball. But both sides have played on it and they’ve managed certain areas better than us.’
Such an embarrassing defeat threatens to turn England’s golden year into an annus horribilis, with the high hopes for dual World Cup and Ashes glory in 2019 taking another kick on the way down from the West Indies attack.
At the start of January, they were second in the Test rankings behind India, yet the second comprehensive crushing in the Caribbean within seven days means they will slip to fifth if, as expected, Ashes rivals Australia complete a 2-0 series victory over Sri Lanka.
England now head to St Lucia in desperate need of turning around a woeful run of batting scores with the Ashes six months away.
‘We have got to be better at what we do, or maybe do things slightly differently,’ said Root.
‘I can’t bat for 11 guys, neither can Trevor Bayliss or Ramps (batting coach Mark Ramprakash). ‘The responsibility is down to the individual. But we will stick together and work on it as a group and try to come back with a strong response.’
In contrast to Darren Bravo, whose restraint saw him score West Indies’ slowest ever half-century — an effort that spanned more than five-and-ahalf hours. Root and Jos Buttler excepted, England went down to a clutch of rash strokes.
Kemar Roach doubled his match tally to eight for the man-of-the-match award and Jason Holder, his predecessor from last week’s humbling in Barbados, also bagged four.
‘They have some unique bowlers,’ said Root. ‘Roach has a very different approach to a typical standard right-arm action and they gave good variety.’
The most extraordinary performance, however, was that of 22-year-old Antiguan Alzarri Joseph, who held his emotions together on the field to dismiss Root and Joe Denly in the space of six deliveries in late afternoon, just hours after the death of his mother Sharon.
Holder said: ‘I felt it personally this morning when I got the news. To see him in tears was even harder. When we came together in the huddle we just wanted to do it for him. We dedicate this day to him and his mum and his family.
‘Playing on was thoroughly up to him. I didn’t want to deprive him of the opportunity to take the field if he felt he could manage and perform for the West Indies. I know he wanted to do something special for his mum.’