England skipper Joe Root has dismissed the notion that Pakistan did not put up a fight in the ongoing three-Test series. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sacked two members of the coaching staff and sent seven players back home. There have been reports of investigation of their dressing room behaviour as well. On the eve of the third and final Test of the series, Root said that the ‘no fight’ opinion is disrespectful to Pakistan as well as England. He says that the players in the Pakistan dressing room are talented and he intends to be ready for the challenge they pose at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
"Absolutely we have found [Pakistan] a challenge," Root said in the pre-match press conference.
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"I think that's a bit disrespectful to both Pakistan as a team and to us as a team. I don't think we've allowed them to get into games because of how well we've played as well and how quickly we've read the situations and the surfaces that we've had.
"I think it's very easy to say one team is excellent and one team is poor. Normally it's somewhere in the middle.
Gay gets Root backing
Meanwhile, Root has backed opener Emilio Gay to do well and finish the series on a high. Replacing Zak Crawley in the Test setup as opener, Gay has managed to score just 72 runs from three innings. He got starts in both Tests but could not convert them into big scores. So far, he has played five Tests, scoring 211 runs from nine innings at an average of 23.44. He has scored two fifties in red-ball cricket so far.
If Gay does not put up impressive performance, Jordan Cox may get a chance as opener when Jacob Bethell returns after recovering from his knee injury.
Root excited to get batting tips from Pietersen
After the Test series against Pakistan, England will host Sri Lanka for a limited-overs series. Ahead of the Sri Lanka challenge, Root expressed his excitement to work with former senior teammate Kevin Pietersen who has been appointed as specialist mentor until the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2027 in South Africa.