England pacer Mark Wood feels sorry for Joe Root, defending his rein as the Test captain as paid him rich tributes. Root stepped down from the role last month following a series of disappointing results, stretching back to the India tour of 2021 when they squandered a 0-1 lead to lose the four-match series 3-1.
“I do feel sorry for Joe. I think it’s worth saying that,” Wood said on the podcast ‘Middle Please, Umpire’. “I actually did really well under Joe’s captaincy myself. He gave me an opportunity, even with injury, he could have quite easily have said, ‘no, that’s enough’. But he’s stuck with me and gave me a clear plan.”
Wood said Root was let down by his teammates.
“I felt like we let him down quite a bit. He was doing so much behind the scenes that people don’t see. You know, getting coaches trying to change training. He was staying behind when I was batting the net,” Wood said.
“He would stay behind and work on batting with me after his net. He was doing so much with trying to get it right, the culture of the team, he was getting people in to do sessions and he did everything he could to try and improve the results but it just wasn’t happening,” he added.
