You take Root out of the side this winter and it's scary when you look at how poor the rest of the batsman are.
Can you imagine (Root, Stokes, Anderson and Broad aside) taking the rest of them to Australia for the ashes next winter. Jeez. It will be another 5-0 whitewash.
The English batters heads are scrambled, the application and determination to stay at the crease is appalling, they've mainly got themselves out. Axar is decent but he's not really turning it much.
What I don’t get is that every time we go to India our heads are completely scrambled by the last test. Surely with all the mental preparation they have these days we should be seeing improvements in that area.
One small positive, Pope has looked better this test and had obviously been working hard in the nets. He was all over the shop in the series before this. Not saying he’s gunna score a hundred here but at least he ‘looks’ like a test batsman again.
What was Pope doing there? He looked like he was going to get out every time he attempted the sweep shot. Was not getting into the correct position. Root must be so annoyed at the other end.
Mockers mate. You just gave Johnathen Agnew a run for his money. What you doing between 3 and 5 this aft?