England's players owed under-fire skipper Joe Root their utmost to turn the tables on dominant Australia in the showpiece Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow said Saturday. The Ashes has already been decided with Australia taking the first three Tests, but England is scrambling to avoid an embarrassing 5-0 series whitewash.
Bairstow said captain Root was coping with the growing pressure and the England team was working hard to break their run of outs against the Australians in the fourth Test, starting at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday. "We don't just owe him (Root), we owe ourselves as well," Bairstow told reporters. "It's something that you don't come away and work as hard as we work to get nothing out of at all.
"So without doubt in these next two games it's a case of, in our eyes, a two-Test series now and that's exactly how we've got to look at it. "We've got to go out there and try and win both of these Test matches." Root has been in the firing line leading a disastrous England tour and has been blasted by former Australia captain Ricky Ponting as looking like a "little boy" who has been a "bit soft" during the Ashes defeat.
Ponting senses Root is struggling to command the respect a leader needs, and suggests that has been demonstrated by some of England's off-field controversies. "Those things show a complete lack of respect for him as captain," Ponting told reporters.
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