‘The whole thing blew up’: Ashes great Steve Harmison warns of divide in England camp

Joe Root’s captaincy is under the microscope after the England skipper made some brash remarks about the Test side’s bowling attack.

Joe Root of England. Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Joe Root’s captaincy is under the microscope following England’s woeful 275-run defeat to Australia in the second Ashes Test at Adelaide Oval.

England’s cricketers were utterly outclassed in all facets of the game in the South Australian capital, and the tourists are staring down the barrel of another heavy series defeat on Australian soil.

Root has now played 11 Test matches in Australia without a win — England has mustered just one victory from their last 11 Tests against any opposition.

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On day one of the pink-ball Test in Adelaide, England’s bowlers resorted to a short-ball strategy with three players on the leg-side boundary.

Although the tactic rattled Australian No. 3 Marnus Labuschagne, it was largely ineffective, primarily because it removed two common modes of dismissal – bowled and LBW.

According to Fox Cricket, only 13 deliveries from England quicks in the opening 43 overs of the first innings would have struck the stumps. Channel 7 later revealed that only five per cent of balls by England’s seamers on day one would have hit the stumps.

England’s bowlers finally pitched the ball up on day two, and lo and behold, it worked — Steve Smith, Cameron Green and Labuschagne were each dismissed bowled or LBW with the second new ball.

After stumps on day five, Root bluntly vented his frustration with England’s bowlers for falling into the same trap as they did four years ago.

“I don’t think we bowled the right lengths,” he told reporters on Monday. “If we’re being brutally honest, we needed to bowl fuller.

“As soon as we did in that second innings, we created chances. We need to do that more, we need to be a bit braver, get the ball up there a bit further because when we do, we’re going to create chances and make life difficult.

“That’s one of the frustrating things because it’s something we did four years ago and got it wrong and we didn’t learn from it. We made the same mistakes last week (in Brisbane) – we just have to be better and we’ve got to learn those lessons very quickly.”

England captain Joe Root. Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Root’s remarks raised some eyebrows — as captain, surely he’d be the person responsible for stepping in and taking action.

The skipper was also guilty of setting heavy leg-side fields in Adelaide, which could be interpreted as encouraging his bowlers to drop short.

“What Joe said straight after the game, I took offence to a little bit,” former England bowler Harmison told news.com.au, speaking on behalf of Genting Casino.

“If (Michael) Vaughan had done that to me, Hoggard, Flintoff and Jones, I don’t think he would’ve been getting through the changing room door before one of us had confronted him.

“I understand what he’s saying — England did need to bowl that little bit fuller … (but) when we’re bowling that little bit fuller, and we are creating those chances, we’re not catching them.”

Root suffered an abdomen injury during a training mishap before play on day four of the Adelaide Test, and the 30-year-old was unable to take the field as he underwent scans.

During the 45 minutes that Root was not on the ground, England claimed the wickets of Marcus Harris and Michael Neser with full deliveries that seamed off the deck.

Smith should have then been out first ball when he edged a full delivery from Stuart Broad, only to be dropped by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.

However, when Root returned, the field was spread and England’s seamers resumed the bouncer barrage — Labuschagne and Travis Head both compiled fifties in the afternoon session.

“The captain has to take some responsibility,” two-time Ashes winner Harmison said.

“On that fourth morning, we bowled well for an hour. Joe wasn’t on the field, and all of a sudden, Joe comes back on the field and Ben Stokes comes on and bowls a barrage of short balls.

“We’ve panicked a little bit sometimes with the ball on this trip. We haven’t done the simple things for long enough, and that’s what’s cost us.

“I don’t think we bowled as badly as what the captain had suggested … I don’t think it was meant to be a massive criticism against the bowlers. I could understand what Joe was saying, that we haven’t learnt from before.

“I just think it was a heat of the moment comment that has been blown out of all proportion. I hope they’ve had a good chat between them all. I hope they’ve said some harsh things to each other — nothing wrong with that, tear a few strips off each other and then regroup.”

Joe Root speaking to media after England’s loss in Adelaide. Photo by Sarah Reed – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images

Speaking on talkSPORT’s Following On Cricket podcast, Harmison warned that Root’s comments could cause friction within the England dressing room.

“What’s worrying about Root’s comments is that his words directed at the bowlers turns any team meeting into a batsman vs bowlers situation,” he said. “Net situations can get really spicy after these kinds of comments are made because they could get out of hand.

“I remember on the 2006/07 tour and in Perth we were in a net and Kevin Pietersen had a go at us. We were bowling with old balls and then he started taking the mick and being a showman. Hoggy was with me and Jon Lewis, and he got three brand new balls and we started bowling bouncers at KP and he didn’t like it. He came storming down after the seventh ball went over his head and he started shouting and screaming.

“All of a sudden a batsman versus bowlers situation came up, the whole thing blew up.

“It got to a point where there was a bad situation when something was said against the bowling unit and Root has done something similar by talking about the bowling unit after the second Test.”

The Guardian reported that coach Chris Silverwood ran through the dismissals of his side’s specialist batters during the pink-ball Test in Adelaide, putting them on the TV in the dressing room as some home truths were delivered after the match.

Several of England’s batters have been out nicking balls they could have left across the first two Tests of this series. Almost all of the top seven — including Root — have been guilty of fishing outside off stump, desperate to feel bat on ball.

However, England seamer Mark Wood dismissed reports there was tension in the dressing room.

“As a bowling group we can always get better. I just feel like with the batting, as we discussed in the meeting, these heavy collapses we keep having is what is costing us Test matches,” he told reporters.

“But it doesn’t feel that it’s a batters vs bowlers thing, with all the batters in one corner giving snidey talk about the bowlers, and all the bowlers in the other corner snidey-talking about the batters.

“It’s not like that. We’re just desperate to play better than we are. We’re all in it together.”

Marnus Labuschagne copped a bouncer barrage on day one. Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Former Australian Test captain Ricky Ponting had no sympathy for Root, saying if the Yorkshireman wasn’t happy with what his bowlers were delivering, he should have intervened.

“I nearly fell off my seat when I heard that,” Ponting told cricket.com.au of Root’s post-match comments.

“Whose job is it then to make them change? Why are you captain then?

“If you can’t influence your bowlers on what length to bowl, what are you doing on the field?

“Joe Root can come back and say whatever he likes, but if you’re captain, you’ve got to be able to sense when your bowlers aren’t bowling where you want them to.

“And if they’re not going to listen, you take them off, simple as that. Give someone else a chance that is going to do it for you. Or you have a really strong conversation with them on the field to tell them what you need.

“That’s what captaincy is all about.”

Australian legend Ian Chappell believes England will suffer another 5-0 Ashes whitewash unless Root is sacked as captain.

“He’s a very good batsman but he shouldn’t be captain … because he’s not very good,” he told 7News.

“I don’t see him as inspirational.

“You’ve got to be able to do something that will inspire the rest.

“You’ve got to ask the question, Joe, if you can see the problem, why aren’t you fixing it?

“I can’t see anything but 5-0 now.”

The third Ashes Test between England and Australia gets underway at the MCG on Sunday, with the first ball scheduled for 10.30am AEDT.

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