GILES WANTS TO WIN RESPECT OF WORLD
SHLEY GILES is confident none of his England players will step out of line in the West Indies – and he trusts Ben Stokes to behave himself. make mistakes and I’m sure Ben has learned from his experiences.
“But we still want guys to play cricket hard. We don’t want bland cricketers out on the field. I want us to play tough cricket.
“And as much as I want us to be the best team in the world, I want us to be the most respected too in terms of how we go about things.
“That’s going to be a challenge as there are things that will probably go against that. My role is checking what the dressing room is doing. I can’t do that on my own because I won’t be in a tracksuit in the dressing room but we have a lot of very good people I will tap into.
“How we play and how we are viewed outwardly is really important to me. It’s how we are seen and respected.”
Giles is also confident Root will be raring to go despite playing in Australia’s Big Bash between the tours of Sri Lanka and West Indies. There have been suggestions that Root, who plays in all formats for his country, could suffer from burnout, having played so much with barely a break.
But Giles said: “I’m not saying the captaincy wears him down but perhaps the opportunity to play without having it on his shoulders would have been quite nice.
“I’ve watched a fair amount of the Big Bash and he did not have the success he would have wanted. But just getting some T20 cricket action can only be beneficial, whether it’s a good or bad experience.”