Former English skipper Kevin Pietersen rooted for Joe Root despite his low-string of scores after notching up a double century in the first Test match against India and said that let’s point a finger at the other batters who couldn’t even aggregate 100 runs.
English skipper Joe Root started the four-match Test series against England with a bang as he registered a double century, in what was his 100th Test for England as well, which helped visitors to seal the first Test match by 227 runs.
However, after the first Test match Root looked pretty ordinary in the rest of the series, aggregating just 110 in the remaining three matches, as he along with other English batsmen found it difficult to counter the likes of R Ashwin and Akshar Patel.
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While replying to The Telegraph’s query during a virtual interaction, former English skipper Kevin Pietersen said as a captain and the team's best player Joe Root had a lot on his plate during the series.
“Sometimes, as a captain, you got a lot to deal with. You’ve got a tremendous amount of things to deal with and being the best player of the team, you also need to try and lead by example,” Kevin Pietersen said.
Petersen said that it's unfair to point finger at Root because he scored lots of runs over the last six weeks and added that fingers should be pointed at other batsmen who failed to aggregate even 100 runs.
“Don’t forget, Joe Root scored a double hundred, then a big hundred (both versus Sri Lanka) and again a double hundred in India. He scored plenty of runs over the last six to eight weeks, so let’s not point a finger at Root. Rather, let’s point a finger at the other batters as some of them couldn’t even aggregate 100 runs in the six weeks that they have been here,” he said.
Petersen, who is in Raipur for the ongoing Road Safety World Series, hailed Joe Root as a fabulous player and added that he is the leader and he knows what he's doing.
“I think Joe is a fabulous player. On the field he’s fantastic and off the field he’s a great servant of the game. He is a leader and he knows what he is doing. So let’s just keep calm with him and instead have a look at the technique of the other players,” he said.
Kevin Pietersen while replying to the query which read that “Is it a case of England not taking the art of spin bowling seriously?” pointed out that English batters and the English system are very professional to take things lightly and added that visitors lacked the world-class spinner which has been the main issue.
“I’m not sure if spin is not taken very seriously by England because the English batters and the English system are both very professional and very well structured. So I wouldn’t say that they don’t take it seriously.
“I just think the batters came unstuck against two quality spinners and the difference between the two teams was that England did not have a world-class spinner. And that has been the issue. (Dom) Bess and (Jack) Leach are just not world-class spinners,” he concluded.
(The Telegraph inputs)
