Senior England batter Joe Root said that he is hurt by the defending champions’ dismal campaign at the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, but still, his team is better than Australia 'man to man'.
While Australia is in third place on the CWC 2023 points table with four successive wins, England have just two points from their six games and sit at the bottom of the table.
However, England is still mathematically in contention for the semi-finals of the World Cup 2023. But the Jos Buttler-led team’s elimination would be confirmed if they failed to beat their Ashes rivals in their next World Cup 2023 clash in Ahmedabad.
Well, Root stressed that England has the ability to beat Australia at Narendra Modi Stadium on November 4, and they are calling this game "their World Cup final", as they are aiming to qualify for the 2025 Champions Trophy.
Joe Root told the British media: “I look at this team and it's more than capable of achieving way more than it has done throughout this tournament. The quality of players we have, we should be sat right at the top of this [table]. We all know that, and we're all very frustrated that isn't the case.”
He continued, “This group of players have three opportunities to [...] play at the level we expect of ourselves: I fully believe we are more than capable of doing that on Saturday. Man for man, I'd have this team every day over the Australians. We might not have played as well as we can do but we know when we play our best stuff, the best teams struggle to compete with us.
We have to remember that and take that into the next couple of days: both in physical practice and mentally, [we have to] make sure we're in that frame of mind to take on Australia, which is what it's about for us now. We've just got to look at Saturday as our World Cup final and play in the manner that's expected of us and we expect of ourselves.”
Root signed off by saying on his own poor show, “It's been really disappointing to not be more consistent. That's what I expect of myself. Saturday is another opportunity to go and score runs, do what I expect of myself and what the team expects of me.”
(Reuters Inputs)
