Former England fast bowler and commentator Steve Harmison said the hosts were a “shambles” and it was frightening to watch the way Joe Root and his team capitulated at Lord’s Cricket Ground after they suffered an embarrassing defeat against India in the second Test on Monday (August 16).
England allowed Team India to walk all over them on Day 5 of the second Test, as they were bowled out for 120 while chasing 299 and suffered one of their worst defeats of 151 runs in the format in recent times at Lord’s.
Harmison said on talkSPORT Breakfast: “It was a fantastic Test match. I bet Joe Root wished he could sleepwalk back into the Lord’s dressing room on Monday morning and do things all over again. England were a shambles. I find it hard to rant because they were that bad.”
Indian pacers Jasprit Bumrah (34*) and Mohammad Shami (56*) stunned the English attack by adding 89 runs for the 9th wicket on Day 5 and Harmison felt the host should have changed their plans to take control.
He further explained, “When Bumrah walked into bat it was like a bully in the schoolyard being stood up to by the smaller kid. They didn’t go hard at Bumrah, but did have a go at him verbally and tried to bowl bouncers at him. All of a sudden, India stood up to England, and England just capitulated.
It was frightening to watch. The plans went out the window, they were rudderless and had nobody to say ‘hold on here; let’s stop doing what we are doing. It went on and on and on.”
However, the former pacer said England’s defeat at Lord’s was embarrassing but refused to blame Root for the loss as he is the only one who is carrying the side on his back while praising India’s batting.
Harmison said, “They (India) batted brilliantly, but let’s not sugarcoat the fact of what is going on in England cricket and that is the top order. England look all at sea at this moment in time. You can criticize Joe for his captaincy but I find it hard to criticize that young man because what he’s doing for the England cricket team… he’s carrying them on his back. It’s embarrassing. If it doesn’t stop, I just fear where it could be by the end of the Ashes in six month’s time.”
On how England can improve, the commentator said: “Where do you start. You can go off the structure and all this stuff you can chuck the blame at.”
He signed off by saying, “Sometimes, you just have to look at yourself in the mirror and I thought England were quite soft yesterday and that worried me more than some of the batsmen’s dismissals. They let India walk all over them. To change that it is quite difficult.”
