READY STEADY JOE

Captain Root and Broad back to steer ship away from the rocks

JOE ROOT must bring every bit of his captaincy experience to the fore this week to avoid his teetering ship from toppling over.

Things could not be more different from the dreamy day at the start of the year when his team wrapped up a 3-1 series win in South Africa and the future looked rosy.

Somehow, with all their players fit and raring to go, they find themselves 1-0 down in a series at home. And they will be blooding a new No.3 batsman, while making at least two other changes to the side that lost just a few days ago.

Teams that make three changes to their side from game to game are usually in some sort of a crisis. It is unclear whether the coronavirus pandemic can entirely be blamed for this one.

Last week Stuart Broad was dropped from the side and let the world know how angry it made him feel.

This week James Anderson and Mark Wood have been ‘rested’ suggesting that semantics are more of a worry than how to play Shannon Gabriel’s bouncer.

At least Root the batsman is back, on the ground where he has his highest Test score, to provide some much needed ballast to a line-up that failed to make the most of their chances in Southampton.

That failure has cost Joe Denly his place and most likely his Test career with Zak Crawley

(right), his friend and

Kent team-mate, keeping his. With no Test century between them, Root’s return immediately makes England a better team, and he is confident his Test woes of 2019 before his Hamilton double hundred are a thing of the past. “It was a very difficult decision we’ve had to make on Joe who has done a good job for us,” said Root.

“But we have gone a different way. Zak’s progression since he’s come into the team and the way his game is looking to be getting stronger is a great sign. “I have had a bit of time to take stock and look at my game and I am really looking forward to getting back out there.

“There have been periods over the last year and a bit, if I’m being honest, where I’ve been fighting my game a bit.

I’ve not been quite myself and at my fluent best.

“Now I feel like I’ve turned a corner with that and I really want to go out and score those match-winning hundreds again.”

Root will be hoping to see a bigger contribution from wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler on his home ground – to match those of his impressive counterpart Shane Dowrich.

Root added: “Jos is a big senior player in the dressing room across the formats and I just feel he’s not far away from grabbing Test cricket and really running with it.

“I have seen big strides in terms of his technical game and we want him to find that balance and mind-set that he has in white-ball cricket.”