Former England captain Graham Gooch seemed to be very disappointed with the top-order over their failure to regularly score runs so far in the ongoing five-match Test series against India at home.
The openers Dominic Sibley and Zak Crawley are the biggest disappointments for England and Gooch said that the lack of effort from the top-order has put the hosts in a problematic situation against Team India.
He believes that England is too dependent on their captain Joe Root, though, he is confident that the star batsman can maintain his run-making spree, but he is bound to feel the pressure as time goes on just like he felt in his playing days.
Root has been impressive this year, scoring more than 1200 runs at 67.21 in 10 Tests this year so far, but he needs contributions from others too to win the games.
Gooch told Daily Mail: “We're too reliant on the one person. I have had that experience and that's not a complaint but at certain stages of my career, there was a greater responsibility on having to deliver. As a player, you can be in the best form of your life but you can't deliver all the time and that expectation is not helpful. You need everyone to contribute.”
Recalling his captaincy stint, the former skipper noted: “When I became captain, it spurred me on for the best period of my career. But I felt the pressure later on towards the end before I resigned in '93.”
He continued, “I had a good series against Australia, scored two hundreds, but I felt the pressure in that I needed to do well because we had quite a few younger players. You just feel the pressure. Whatever he says, Joe will be feeling the pressure because at the moment he's 50, 60, 70 percent of our batting, isn't he? Can he keep this form going for the rest of the series? Of course, he can.”
Gooch signed off by saying, “He's a world-class player and he's performing unbelievably. He can keep it going. But of course, with any performer in any sport, there is going to be a fallow period. It's not possible to keep it going game after game after game.”
The third Test between England and India begins on August 25 at Headingley, Leeds.
(With IANS Inputs)
