"I am a bit bored of all the positive chat" - Alastair Cook urges Joe Root to face reality amid England's Test woes
Alastair Cook has hit out at England Test captain Joe Root for constantly speaking about the positives despite series losses. However, the former opener also hailed Root as the most complete England batter he has ever seen.
Following another series loss in the West Indies, Root took to his Twitter handle and said England have plenty of positives to take. The 31-year old, who succeeded Cook as the captain, congratulated his counterpart Kraigg Brathwaite on the West Indies' success.
A difficult defeat to take because I really think there were a lot of positives to come from the way we played for the vast majority of this series. Thank you to our amazing fans out here in the Caribbean and congratulations to Kraigg and his team. https://t.co/5Hqc1d3sjp
However, Cook feels England need a reality check and that their attitude wasn't right during the Ashes. The 37-year old recalled their batting collapse in the third Test against the West Indies in Grenada, stating as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo:
"I am a bit bored of all the positive chat, because I don't think it was a sense of reality in that changing room. All the noise was that 'we've turned a corner, and our attitude is brilliant'. Some of that stuff should have been a given. And it looked like a dig at the Australia tour, that their attitude there wasn't great."
"Actually, from watching, I never saw them throw the towel in. They just weren't good enough to compete, and their batting under pressure folded, and the same thing happened in Grenada."
After the first two Tests endedin draws, England produced their worst batting performance of the series. The tourists managed totals of 204 and 120 in two innings in the third Test as West Indies won the game comfortably.
"The amount of runs that Joe Root has scored is an incredible effort" - Alastair Cook
Nevertheless, Cook thinks Root has handled the outside noise incredibly well and has made his bat talk spectacularly. The Essex-born player remembered the England captain's 2021 Test performances and felt it's unbelievable, saying:
"The amount of runs that Joe Root has scored is an incredible effort. I really struggled in 2014, scoring runs with that KP stuff going on the background, that really affected me. For him to be able to handle that and not let his personal performance go, that's an unbelievable sign."
He continued:
"He's England's most complete batsman I've ever seen, but if juggling the captaincy was going to affect him, it would have affected him in the last eight months or so. To score 1700 runs, 1200 more than anyone else, it's laughable, and normally, it's untenable to do that."
Joe Root in Test cricket in 2021:
Most runs (1,708) ✅
Most centuries (6) ✅
Most runs by a captain in a calendar year ✅
A year to remember for the England skipper 👏👏
#JoeRoot #England #Cricket https://t.co/2q5fRTqUQd
The right-handed batter made 1708 runs in 15 Tests at an average of 61 last year, scoring six Test hundreds. However, several former England players have called for Root to step down as captain.