Joe denies his leadership is root of problems
ENGLAND captain Joe Root has smashed suggestions he is a soft captain and declared his team are not spent as an Ashes force despite having already surrendered the urn.
The visitors refused to bow to calls for change after three losses, bringing in only bowler Tom Curran to make his Test debut as a replacement for injured quick Craig Overton.
But it wasn’t a result of being soft on his the underperforming players and Root bristled when reminded former Aussie captain Ricky Ponting had said the English captain looked like a “little boy” after the third Test loss in Perth.
Ponting believed Root lacked the hard edge to rescue his team from the position they found themselves in but the English captain said he had, and would, make the tough calls when needed.
“He’s entitled to his opinion but he doesn’t spend any time in our dressing room, and doesn’t spend much time around the squad, so I am obviously going to disagree with that,” Root said of Ponting’s criticisms.
“I’m sure if you asked of the guys in the camp they would back me up on that as well.
“I don’t think I go about things as a little boy. I have my own way of doing things. I think it’s important to not try to be something I am not.
“But I know that there are occasions where you might have to be quite strong in front of the group, the whole group. I might not appear to do that out on the field but there are certainly times where I know I can do that, and I have done that.”
One such tough call was bringing in Curran on what Root called “gut feel” as well as backing out-of-sorts veterans Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali.
“It is a big test of character but I think that is one of our strengths,” Root said of the task in Melbourne today.