England's Joe Root celebrates making his 100 runs on day one of the first Ashes Test cricket match between England and Australia at Edgbaston, Birmingham. (AP | PTI) England batter Joe Root has given a stern warning to Australian cricket team ahead of the Lord’s Test match saying they carry on playing the “Bazball” style. The second Ashes Test between England and Australia gets underway at Lord’s on Wednesday.
“If we are going to grow as a team, we can‘t just look at a day like this with a couple of moments going against us and say, ‘We need to do things differently’. If anything, we need to double down on how we do it, completely back ourselves and make sure we get those one-percenters right at Lord’s,” he told reporters.
“Zak (Crawley) hit the first ball of the game for four, everyone backed up what we‘ve spoken about – all the hype and talk about, ‘Can England do it this way against Australia?’. I think we’ve proven to everyone that we can.”
“Everyone should strap in and expect the same from us. That’s what we’re about as a team.
“We are going to challenge and compete. We‘re in for a hell of a Test series here.”
Root says he has enjoyed Ben Stokes captaincy and if given a chance to go back in time, he would chage his tyle of captaincy.
“If I could go back in time, I’d go back and start my captaincy tenure the way Ben has and try to play in a similar manner to how he does it,” Root told reporters on Thursday.
“It‘s far more exciting, far more interesting and I think we are getting more out of our team and our individuals. We’re playing better cricket to watch, producing better results overall.
Root has turned heads after attempting a reverse scoop against Pat Cummins on the first delivery of Day four, and the he executed it to perfection against Scott Boland the following over.
“I don’t feel like Superman, I’m absolutely bricking it when he’s running in to bowl most of the time,” Root said.
“The first time I did it in the Test it was quite clear (Cummins) was bowling wide, it didn‘t feel like there was a lot of risk in it.
“Coming out first ball of the day, it was more about being 28 for 2 and it was a chance to lay a marker down and say to everyone in the ground, the dressing room, the crowd, ‘We are not here to be bowled at, we’re here to push the game on’. I think that’s how we all look at the game now, from any position we feel like we can get somewhere to go on and win.”
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