The England vs Australia rivalry off the field found a new issue when Three Lions batter Joe Root responded to former Australia coach and player Darren Lehmann said that the batter is a “rung below” the all-time greats.
“That’s the only thing stopping Joe Root. He’s a great player, but is he an all-time great? I don’t have him in that realm,” Lehmann had said on ABC, talking about Root’s inability to score a century in Australia unlike Virat Kohli who on scored Sunday notched up his 7th 100 Down Under in the Perth Test.
Reacting to that, Joe Root said to BBC, “My job is to score runs, right? To turn up every game and try to do all I can out in the middle. His job is to give his opinion and talk on the radio.”
“I’ll do my job and he can do his job. He’s completely entitled to say what he wants. That’s his right,” the England batter added.
Lehmann would later clarify his comments on X, saying, “Just to be clear as there are a lot of people who think , that I think Joe root is not a great . He is going to be a great, I know that and a wonderful ambassador for our game but needs and he will probably do this next ashes . Get a hundred in Aus and then no dispute.”
In the first Test in Pakistan played in October, Root became England’s all-time leading scorer, leapfrogging Alastair Cook. He has a total of 12,754 runs in his kitty and is now just below Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid in the all-time list.
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