England captain Joe Root said that England will be targetting “every single one of” the Australians in the upcoming Ashes. “I’ve heard a lot of chat about targeting me, in particular,” he said, “We’ll be targeting every single one of them – we won’t be singling anyone out. Bring it on – it’s what it’s all about.”
His comments come in the wake of Australian spinner Nathan Lyon saying that the Australians will be targetting Joe Root. It is only one of the many comments that have gone back and forth between the two sides in run up to the Ashes.
“There’s been a lot of talk. Some of it is exciting and some of it is a load of rubbish, especially from some of the Aussie players,” said the England captain, “I try not to do too much talking. That’s more for them to worry about. The more you say, the more it can backfire on you. We will go about things our way. Hopefully that’s the right way.”
England are missing their star all-rounder Ben Stokes due to the pending investigation into an alleged brawl that he was involved in outside a pub in Bristol. Since then, his replacement Steve Finn had been ruled out due to injury and Jake Ball has also met with the same fate. But Root is confident on the selection that has gone into making the team. “The selection for this game gives us a good indication of where we’re at,” said Root, “Craig has done really well, but all of the bowlers have done themselves proud.”
Root also said that England will have to look into their batsmen not being able to make big totals in the warm-up matches. “The one thing that we have not got quite right yet is converting 60s and 70s into big hundreds,” said Root, It’s nice to see guys getting in and building an innings in these conditions, but we know what will win Test matches is big hundreds.”
Root also defended England’s former captain and all-time leading Test run scorer Alastair Cook, who managed just 47 runs in the warm-up. “With his experience and his weight of runs, the amount of cricket he’s played, he’ll know how he needs to get ready,” said Root, “It would be nice for him to get a bucketload this week but, if not, I’m fully confident the quality he has and the things he has done previously will set him up nicely for the first Test.”
