"It’s like the perfect storm of everything coming together" - Joe Root on England's recent struggles in white-ball cricket
England batter Joe Root admitted that a combination of things happening at the same time has been responsible for their recent slump in white-ball cricket. However, the right-handed batter has backed the team to get things right.
England have won only two out of their seven limited-overs games in their ongoing home summer. Jos Buttler, who succeeded Eoin Morgan as captain, has endured a slow start to his captaincy stint. The keeper-batter has also undergone a lean run with the bat since becoming captain.
The Englishmen lost both the ODI and T20I series against India by a similar margin of 2-1. They now find themselves one game down in the three-match ODI series against South Africa.
South Africa win the opening ODI in Durham.
🏴 #ENGvSA 🇿🇦 https://t.co/Bf34FKWhdc
Root feels a 'perfect storm' of things is responsible for their poor run in limited-overs cricket. He also cited injuries and lack of runs from senior players for their string of losses. Nevertheless, the 31-year old trusts the team to come good, having done it before as well.
The Yorkshire batter said, as quoted by The Guardian:
"It’s like the perfect storm of everything coming together. And when it doesn’t go well it’s really important that you stay strong, you stick to how you want to approach things as a group, and you fully believe it and back it. We’ve shown that we can do that before and I’m very confident we’ll be doing that again in the near future.
"There’s still a lot of players that aren’t available for selection at the minute through injury. And in the last series, you didn’t have big senior players step up with performances, like myself."
The former Test skipper registered two ducks in three innings against India in England's ODI series defeat to India. However, he returned to form, top-scoring with 86 in the hosts' 62-run loss to South Africa in the first ODI at Chester-Le-Street.
"He’s going to be a great captain" - Joe Root on Jos Buttler
Root also earmarked Buttler to become a better captain with time, saying that the results don't show the true picture.
He said:
"I know Jos has got a great cricket mind, he understands this game brilliantly. He’s going to be a great captain. I don’t think these results are a fair reflection on the way that he’s going about his business as a leader. Sometimes it does take time for things to bed in. I don’t think it will take that long with Jos."
"I want to say thank you for everything he's done in this format of the game" 🙌
Jos Buttler reacts to England's defeat in the first ODI vs South Africa and says the side will miss Ben Stokes 🔊 https://t.co/UJYMOkA3uB
Should England lose the second ODI to the Proteas, it will be Buttler's third consecutive limited-overs series loss. The second ODI will take place on Friday, July 22, at Old Trafford in Manchester.