Joe Root urges England to beat Pakistan and earn second series win of the summer
Written by News on 21/08/2020
England captain Joe Root has urged his side to “throw everything” at Pakistan and end the summer with a second series win under their belts.
Root goes into Friday’s third Test at the Ageas Bowl with six straight wins as skipper to his name, knowing a seventh would send England second in the World Test Championship.
England remain 1-0 up on the tourists following the drawn second Test, having already secured a come-from-behind 2-1 success over West Indies.
Speaking to Sky Sports Cricket’s Mike Atherton ahead of the game, Root called on his side to seize the chance to end their Test year on a high – not least because the impact of the coronavirus pandemic means England might not play another Test until January, in India.
He also acknowledged that the next five days are ones to relish, given that it seemed possible after the cancellation of England’s tour of Sri Lanka in March that no further Test cricket might be played in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“It has been great,” reflected Root. “Look at where we could have been at the start of the summer, when we did that vodcast right at the start of lockdown.
“To be stood here five Tests in is a great achievement for everyone involved – for West Indies and Pakistan for coming over and the boards organising it and everyone who made this environment secure so that we could get some cricket on.
“My message to the boys this morning was – ‘we don’t know when our next cricket is. Let’s make sure we throw everything into this week and give ourselves the best chance of doing something quite special.
“We haven’t beaten Pakistan in over 10 years now so it would be a great achievement for this group to do that and we’ve got a fantastic opportunity to play five days’ good cricket and hopefully be stood here 2-0 up.”
The opportunity to gain more World Test Championship points and climb above Australia in the table, thereby keeping the heat on leaders India, only adds to Root’s ambition.
“I know that we’re third currently, and I think it’s important to keep pushing our case within it,” he said. “The best way of doing that is looking after each series we play.
“I believe we could go to second if we win this game, which is very exciting and credit to the guys; if you look at our improvement and the way we’ve played since that second Test match in New Zealand onwards, we’ve made huge strides as a team.
“It puts us in a great position. We don’t know necessarily when our next games are but, whenever they are, we’ve got a great opportunity to really kick on and put pressure on those teams in and around us.”
Root remains convinced that the current England side is stronger than the one which failed to win back the Ashes in 2019 but knows that further improvement is essential if the side is to go on and improve its Test ranking status from fourth to first.
“I’ve been really impressed by the group, to be honest. I think that we’re learning all of the time and we’ve got a great attitude about how we go about things.
“I think we’re really clear about where we are trying to get to, with simple messages. It’s quite a self-explanatory way of playing the game that we’ve got and we’ve got some very strong characters that want to fill those roles and go out and play in that manner.
“That’s the really exciting thing that as a group of players all building towards something. It’s a realistic group as well; we know we’re not the finished article, we know we’ve got challenges and hurdles to overcome, and things we need to get better at if we are to become that number one team in the world.
“But the mindset that we have and the work ethic that we have gives us the best opportunity of getting there and I can certainly see this group of players going on to do that.”
Watch the third Test between England and Pakistan live on Sky Sports Cricket and across Sky’s digital platforms from 10.30am on Friday.
(c) Sky Sports 2020: Joe Root urges England to beat Pakistan and earn second series win of the summer
