Joe Root finds support from Andrew Strauss to continue as England's captain

English skipper Joe Root has received a lot of criticism of late due to the mediocre Ashes 2019. In 10 innings, he scored just 325 runs at an average of 32.50. Despite getting past the 50-run mark on four occasions, he failed to convert those into big scores and inspire his troops. Moreover, him failing to get his hands on the urn for the second time in a row has invited a lot of unwanted flak.

There are claims that the captaincy burden is affecting Root’s batting. Some even want the 28-year-old to be replaced as the captain of the side. Amidst all this carping, Joe Root has found some support from the former skipper Andrew Strauss. The left-hander has backed Root as the ‘obvious guy’ to be the England Test captain.

Joe Root is the obvious guy to keep going

Andrew Strauss, the newly-appointed chairman of the England Cricket Board’s (ECB) cricket committee expressed his views about Root leading the side. He said that the Yorkshire batsman has learnt a lot about the job. Strauss also agreed that Root has had tough circumstances to deal with. “I think he’s learnt a lot on the job. He’s had some tough circumstances to deal with,” Strauss told Omnisport.

The former cricketer said that it wasn’t a great away series in Australia the last time. However, he added that Root would’ve been buoyed after the performance at The Oval. While he said that now it is about developing as a captain, Andrew Strauss was also wary of the fact that Root has to look after his own game.

“Obviously, the Ashes away in Australia wasn’t a happy time for us. But he would have been buoyed by the performance at The Oval and he’s the obvious guy to keep going. He’s learnt all the lessons there are to learn and now it’s about him evolving and developing as a captain, but also making sure he looks after his own game at the same time. We need him to be putting in those sort of performances, maybe not Steve Smith level, but somewhere close. He’s definitely capable of doing that,” he added.

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