England head coach Chris Silverwood on Monday warned his faltering top three and said they need to start contributing more to ease off the pressure on the skipper Joe Root.
The top-order has been a consistent problem for some time for England with Rory Burns, Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley under the spotlight after failing to register a score of 30 in two innings of the drawn first Test.
“Yeah, I think we do,” England coach Chris Silverwood said on Monday (August 9) when asked if there’s an over-reliance on Root.
“I mean Joe’s been phenomenal for the last six months really scoring runs for us. And what we need to do is make sure that the guys that are batting with him are coming to the party as well. So that’s one thing which we’re talking about in the dressing room constantly. And it’s something that I’ve spoken to the batting coaches as well.
“Encourage conversations between the players and the coaches to try and find a solution for this to try and help them get better. It’s not through lack of effort. It’s not a lack of hard work, it’s just a case of we have to try and find a formula that works. That’s a work in progress at the moment,” he added.
“I’m confident he’s as ready as he could be,” added Silverwood.
“He put his best foot forward in Durham when he scored that hundred and what he did an early season in the championship shows there’s a lot of class there as well.
“I think he is making a very strong case and at some point, we may make a decision and give him an opportunity.”
The second Test of the five-match series gets underway on Thursday at Lord’s.
