Joe Root faces a captain-killer series

Veteran England skipper Joe Root has a list of problems longer than a Leonard Cohen song.

England captain Joe Root, right, is under a great deal more pressure than Pat Cummins

It was Australian bowling-captain Pat Cummins who was said to have the most difficult task on debut, but it is veteran England skipper Joe Root who has, to paraphrase fictional No 10 adviser Malcolm Tucker, a list of problems longer than a Leonard Cohen song.

Losing by nine wickets is one thing, but losing then hearing word from the ICC that the players had been fined all of their match fees — around $27,000 each — and docked Test Championship points for a slow over rate can only make matters worse.

It also adds a further dilemma to a selection quandary: how do you squeeze Stuart Broad and James Anderson into the team without leaving out a slow bowler.

If you bowl just 84 of your allotted 98 overs with a spinner in the line-up, how many are you going to bowl without one?

The over rates have been a problem all year and Root is culpable. It was a long, hot day in the field on Friday, but the skipper needed to stay on top of things and keep his side on the move.

Ashes tours are captain killers. Ask Nasser Hussain, Graham Gooch, Michael Clarke, Bill Lawry, Ricky Ponting. They drain the petrol tank, whether you are playing at home or away.

Covid quarantines and strictures have made playing cricket more difficult than ever and no side has endured as much as Root’s in this calendar year.

Few visiting sides win in Brisbane, but the nine-wicket loss further extends the visitors’ abysmal recent record.

England has won just one of the past 10 Tests Root has captained — consider an Australian skipper in that position and the pressure that would attract.

Mike Denness, who captained England on the 1974-75 tour, famously dropped himself. Root does not have that option — he is essential to the side’s hopes.

In the four matches England have won this year — they have played 13 — Root has scores of 121, 218, 228 and 186.

For his side to win, he has had to score a century or more — and sometimes even that isn’t enough.

Root’s burden is massive. He carries the batting line-up. Root has scored six of England’s seven centuries in 2021. His 1544 runs at 64 in 2021 is elite, but the contrast with everyone else in the team is alarming. The Yorkshireman is the only batter to average over 40. Malan (39) is the only to average above 30.

Every decision comes under pressure when you lose, so it was no surprise to see critics take issue with the call to rest both Stuart Broad and James Anderson. Coach and selector Chris Silverwood said two years ago that his primary task over the next two years would be to assist Root build towards this Ashes.

While leaving out Anderson or Broad scenario was understandable, given their ages and the length of the tour, leaving both out stunned people in and outside the team.

In the warm-up before the Test match Glenn McGrath walked over and congratulated Broad on making it to his 150th Test. The bowler had been under the same impression right up until the eve of the match.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Broad said he and Anderson had been preparing for all five Tests and had “ticked that box”

“But England selection is not in the hands of players,” Broad said. “It is in those of people who have to make choices based on conditions and the balance of the team and our job now with four matches to go is to be ready for the next of the series in Adelaide on Thursday.

“It has been tricky because neither of us have had any actual cricket in the build-up. There have been no tour games, but no one has had a match workload, so we have to be fit when needed.

“It would be wrong in this scenario to kick up a stink. On the flip side, I love Ashes cricket, love bowling at the Gabba and feel like I could’ve had a positive influence on a pitch like that.

“Of course, I was disappointed not to play but I also realise this series is a marathon and not a sprint. Never have five Test matches been as bunched up as this and it will be exhausting, so realistically I don’t think any seamer will play all five.”

David Warner may well have given one of his famous century celebration leaps on hearing that Broad was out.

In 2019 the opener almost fainted at the sight of the English bowler who knocked him over seven times in 10 innings.

Instead of Broad and Anderson, England opted for Chris Woakes and Ollie Robinson, who had never shared a new ball before.

Warner’s good fortune was not finished with the strange selection decision. He got lucky on 17 when Stokes bowled him from a no ball, on 48 when Rory Burns dropped him and on 60 when Haseeb Hameed muffed a simple run-out opportunity.

Warner’s 94 in the first innings came at the cost of bruised ribs and while he is hopeful of playing in the day-night Test in Adelaide, he’ll be restricted and targeted.

Having made a hash of selection in the first Test, England are under more pressure to get it right in the second. A loss in Adelaide and the series becomes a funereal trudge through Christmas and into the new year.

Root is an impressive man. His pastoral sense is well developed and never better demonstrated than in his public statements around Ben Stokes’ absence mid year. His character was demonstrated in 2019 when he pulled up West Indian Shannon Gabriel over a pathetic homophobic jibe.

In the post-match wash up, Root defended spinner Jack Leach, saying the spinner’s mauling was “more on my shoulders and how I managed him”.

The England captain is tougher than he looks, but it is hard not to have sympathy for what he has had to endure and concern for him should things continues in this manner.