Joe Root has said England’s much-vaunted attempt to rebuild their standing with their fans, let alone the rest of the cricket world, will come to nothing if they suffer yet more humiliation during the ongoing one-day series with Sri Lanka.
England, in classic early season English conditions, were bowled out for just 99 as Sri Lanka cruised to a huge 157-run victory in the second ODI at north-east county Durham’s Chester-le-Street headquarters on Sunday to level the five-match series at 1-1 after the hosts won in a rain-affected opener at The Oval.
The series continues at Manchester’s Old Trafford on Wednesday and with crowds appearing to be down after England’s 5-0 Ashes series loss in Australia, Root — bowled for a third-ball duck by Lasith Malinga at the weekend — knows a repeat of the Durham debacle won’t go down well with the paying public.
“We don’t want fans turning up for games and seeing a performance like that,” said the Yorkshire batsman after Sunday’s drubbing. “It’s quite embarrassing.”
“The one way to get people to come and watch you is to win games of cricket and we have to make sure we can do that consistently, earn the right for people to want to come and watch us.”
But Root insisted England, who will hope to welcome back captain and opener Alastair Cook at Old Trafford after he missed Sunday’s match with a groin strain, had not lost faith in their collective ability to win the series.
“We played some really good cricket at The Oval, which was not even a week ago now,” said Root .
“If we do play at the top of our game we’re going to beat sides like Sri Lanka.”
Root though was at a loss to explain why England had batted so badly at Chester-le-Street.
“There isn’t one (explanation) that slaps you in the face,” he said. “I think there are little things from a personal point of view that we can work on tomorrow in practice and try and iron out.
“What we’re expecting is to come back strong on Wednesday and show how good a side we can be. We should be able to win in these conditions.”
Root himself was stuck on the back foot when Malinga knocked back his off stump on Sunday but the player himself didn’t think a radical alteration to his technique was required.
“I’m feeling pretty happy with my game. I’m still learning, as you always do, but I’ve got a reasonable idea of what my role is within the side and it’s not always going to be exactly the same every game,” he said.
“That’s why I like it. You’ve got to adapt and make sure you can play the situation, whether you’re coming in for the last 10 overs or near the front. I have to make sure I’m prepared to do both.
“Obviously yesterday, I possibly could have got forward … (but) I am not too worried about the way I got out. “I’m just going to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It’s pretty simple really.”
