Joe Root hopeful for SCG turnaround amidst challenging situations

England has had a rather dismaying outing in the Ashes so far. The hosts have taken a dominating 3-0 lead against the Joe Root-led side in the five-match Test series. Recently their head coach Chris Silverwood tested positive for Covid 19 and as many as four coaches including him are currently in isolation.

Leading to these unfortunate scenarios, the captain himself gave throwdowns whereas, on the other hand, the analyst has been helping the side with the catching practice. Some net bowlers were available earlier but post a positive Covid 19 test the entire group had to be removed.

However, amidst these tough times, Root is hopeful for things to change. He said that the side needs to look at it as an opportunity to perform even better against the hosts.

“With the number of coaches we’ve had missing, it’s made things slightly disjointed and challenging. We are all feeling for those guys sat in isolation desperately wanting to help us turn things around and we’ve got an opportunity in these two games to do that. We have to make sure we stand up and show we are a better team, which I know we are than we’ve produced so far on this tour.

See that as an opportunity, don’t see it as a heavy burden, see it as a real chance to make some big Test runs, win a game with the ball in hand, and walk away from the trip with something,” Root said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

We have to make sure we are on the right side: Joe Root

There are already a lot of discussions being done on England’s playing XI for the fourth Test. So far it has appeared that the visitors haven’t been able to adapt to the conditions and it remains to be seen how they bring a shift in their fortunes. Root further reckoned that whatever the team is presented with they need to make sure that they are on the right side of it.

“You can dwell on what’s happened so far or we can look at the opportunities that present themselves in the immediate future. That can be the making of some sides and the start of something, that’s the approach we’ll have to take

Whatever we’re presented with here in two days we have to make sure we are on the right side of that and make sure we try to wrestle that momentum early on the Test match then drive it home,” Root added.