James Anderson hits back at skipper Joe Root; Asks not to blame just bowlers
In an article he had written for The Telegraph, James Anderson spoke about England’s current turmoil Down Under and did not shy away from acknowledging the areas where the side have not been very impressive. His article also reeked of a little disagreement with his Test skipper Joe Root, who had suggested that the bowlers didn’t do well enough in the Adelaide Test.
Anderson spoke about the length the English bowlers were bowling, which was a tad bit short to make the batters play onto it. This allowed the likes of Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, and David Warner to leave the ball comfortably, also giving them enough time to settle in.
Talking about the bowlers, Joe Root suggested that they should’ve bowled a bit fuller to induce false shots, but it seemed like the veteran bowler did not like these comments much. Root also added that the bowlers should be a lot more braver in order to achieve better results.
“We have gone away and talked about it like a bowling group but that only goes so far. We have to be better at assessing it during a game. We can’t just go after the game “we should have bowled fuller”. If we are bowling too short at lunch we need information back saying we need to push our lengths up. We have to be a bit more proactive at that too as a whole group,” Anderson wrote.
We are confident of turning things around – James Anderson
Joe Root and James Anderson during the first Test at the Gabba.
Despite going 2-0 down in a canter, James Anderson believes not everything is lost as yet. He mentioned that they weren’t far away from the Aussies in terms of quality and is expecting to bounce back in the coming games. He also spoke about the many conversations that are currently happening in the dressing room relating to their current performances, and said it was important for the players to speak up more than the coaches.
“Obviously, we use the coaches as well but it is important most of the talking comes from the players. It was a good discussion. Nobody could disagree that we are not performing well enough. And it has not just been these last two games. It has been for a period of time that we have been inconsistent. We have shown glimpses of how good we can be but we have not done it consistently enough and that is where we need improvement,” the 39-year-old said.