While visitors Team India was praised all across the globe for their remarkable win over hosts in the second Test match at Lord’s, England skipper Joe Root had to face a lot of criticism for his tactical blunders on the final day that cost them the Test match.
The former Australia cricketer Ian Chappell, who was disappointed with Root’s captaincy reckoned that the right-hand batsman is not the right candidate to lead the team.
“He just loses the plot. His main problem is he doesn’t have a feel for the situation. England have got themselves in a corner, because somebody should have realised a while ago that Joe isn’t the right guy, especially against the better teams,” Chappell told Wide World of Sports.
“What are you going to do? Change captain on the eve of an Ashes series? That’s not a good idea. But by picking him as captain, you’re giving yourself very little chance of winning,” he added.
As there was a lot of talk regarding change in captaincy but at the moment England don’t have a perfect candidate to appoint as leader, apart from Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow. But the duo remain inconsistent and haven’t cemented their place in the team in red-ball cricket.
Thus, with the Ashes series coming up, the 71-year-old Aussie batsman feels the board is at fault for not having identified a better candidate than Joe Root for the role.
“They’ve got serious problems now, because they’ve let the situation deteriorate, to the point where they have to make changes at a time when you don’t want to be making changes. At this point, they really want to be settled against India leading into the Ashes. But they’re anything but settled,” he signed off.
After losing a match that they should have won at the Home of Cricket, Lord’s, it will be interesting to see how the hosts perform in the third Test match to be played at Headingley in Leeds, slated to begin from 25 August.
(With Wide World of Sports Inputs)
