NZ vs ENG | Want the team to not panic and continue to work really hard, urges Joe Root
After a crushing innings defeat in New Zealand, England skipper Joe Root has urged his teammates to get over it and work hard as he believes that it's completely a mindset thing. Root also acknowledged that batsmen failing to capitalise on good starts was their biggest mistake on the docile pitch.
New Zealand staged a valiant performance batting performance at the Bay Oval to hand England an innings defeat, third in four meetings between the nations in the longest format for the game. The defeat also meant English skipper Joe Roots miserable run abroad continue as he faces tenth loss in 14 away fixtures as captain.
Root on the occasion of the tiring loss has urged his team to move on and work hard ahead of the second and final encounter of the series in Hamilton. The English skipper acknowledged that adapting to the style of play, having played a long home season, will be tough and pointed out that it's more of a mentality thing.
"It's not going to happen overnight. It's quite different to the style of cricket we've had to play in our own conditions of late, so it is going to take a little bit of time. There are areas that we can address, and get better at, and we'll have to look at very quickly," Root admitted to Sky Sports on Monday (November 25).
"We have to be honest with ourselves, not panic, not think that it's the end of the world, and make sure that we continue to work really hard. It's a mentality thing more than a technical thing - it's a mindset thing. So trying to harness that early and trying to learn from mistakes like this game and move on very quickly from it... if we can do that, then we'll see rapid improvement.
"I can't fault the effort from the guys. I think we tried extremely hard. It's very easy to look too in-depth at the things we could have done better and not give credit to the opposition, who played very well."
On a slow pitch, English batters failed to capitalize on the brilliant starts they had and hence the visitors failed short of a total intimidating enough to falter the Kiwi batting line up. While Joe Denly and Joe Burns fell quickly after getting to half-ton, all-rounder Ben Stokes perished nine short of a century having been dropped once at 10. Root was quick to point out the shortcoming as he hailed it as a missed opportunity to gain an upper hand over the Kiwis.
"We missed an opportunity if we're being brutally honest. You look at the two innings in comparison: two of their guys went on and made really big contributions. We had a couple of guys play really well but could have done with making those big scores - making a score over 450, really," Root added.
"That was a big opportunity for us that we missed. There were probably a lot of similarities where we had them four or five down for the score where we finished on day one... the difference being they had a guy with a double-hundred and someone support him with a hundred. We had three guys play very well. [I'm] not trying to take anything away from our boys - we played extremely well, we just have to do it for longer, do more of it, and make those nineties, seventies and fifties into two hundreds and hundreds."
A lot was expected from the potent young pacer Jofra Archer, but surprisingly it seemed he left his fiery pace, which unsettled the Aussie batting line up in the Ashes, back home. Having bowled as many as 42 overs, the youngster returned with rather disappointing figures of 1 for 107. Despite his timid performance, Root believes Archer, who has tremendous talent, will learn a lot from bowling in these docile conditions.
"He's got all the attributes that can be very successful here and he's got to learn that sometimes you've got to make sure every spell counts. You really have got to run in and use that extra pace to your advantage. In many ways I can't fault his effort, bowling the amount he has done throughout this innings shows that he cares and he wants to put in for this team," Root stated.
"But I think there are certain spells where he can just unleash a little bit more. That will come with experience and time. I don't think sometimes he realises how good he is and what he can do, especially when the wicket does look flat. Hopefully, he'll be able to learn from an experience like this one. In many ways, I can see it really motivating him and making him a better player."