Chris Woakes has backed the under-fire Joe Root to continue as England captain despite their humiliation to Australia in the ongoing Ashes 2021-22.
Root and head coach Chris Silverwood have been heavily criticized by former cricketers after England’s poor showing in the ongoing Ashes, trailing 0-3 against Australia in the five-match Test series, with the fourth and fifth Test to be held in Sydney and Hobart on January 5 and 14, respectively.
The England skipper had a record-breaking year with the bat, scoring 1708 runs, but his team lost 9 of their last 12 Tests, including six consecutive defeats overseas, and in the ongoing Ashes, they suffered three heavy defeats against Australia, shattering their hopes of winning the Ashes.
Read Also: Ashes 2021-22: Joe Root must step down as England captain- Sir Geoffrey Boycott
Root has not won any of his three Ashes series as England captain, and interestingly, he denied discussing the long-term future of his captaincy after the innings defeat in third Ashes Test at the MCG.
Woakes told British media when he was asked if England would support Root's continuation as skipper: “Absolutely. Joe is a great cricketer; he's got a great cricket brain. I think his record as England captain is actually pretty good, as far as I'm aware. I definitely feel like Joe will continue.”
He further added, “It's clear that the captaincy isn't having an effect on his batting, which a lot of the time with captains can be the case. The fact that he's scoring the runs he is, is great for the team. Definitely, it feels like Joe will continue as captain. Hopefully, he will.
It would be great if we could help him out with that and score a few more runs around him. Joe is a world-class player who has obviously had a fantastic year. When a guy bats as well as he has you would expect us to put in a lot stronger performances than we have.”
On Silverwood, Woakes said: “Who am I to talk about people's futures other than my own, to be brutally honest? We have two more games and we want to show a lot of character, a lot of fight.”
He signed off by saying, “The group of players, the management, and the staff we have out here have the backing of the players to hopefully put things right, over the next two games in particular.”
(With Reuters Inputs)
