Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain. (Photo: Twitter)

Former England captain Nasser Hussain has opened up on England’s ODI series loss in India, saying that they missed their premier number three batsman. Nasser Hussain opined that England missed the guile of Joe Root in the middle-order as he allows the others around him to play freely. The cricketer-turned-commentator believes that even though the openers and Ben Stokes played well, they could not often fulfill Root’s absence.

England selectors rested Joe Root from the ODI series, looking ahead to the home schedule and the Ashes down under later this year. England’s Test captain played an instrumental role in their World Cup victory two years ago as he ended up as their highest run-getter with 556 runs in 11 games at 61.77 with two fifties and three centuries. Root is best known for rotating the strike frequently by running the ones and twos efficiently.

Joe Root
Joe Root (Image Credits: Twitter)

While Nasser Hussain acknowledged that Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow were outstanding in the first two games, a failure in the third game made England miss Joe Root. Hussain accepts that Ben Stokes did well at number three in the second ODI; however, he believes that Joe Root is tailormade for that position. The former England skipper stated that England might have an all-attack approach, but Root is the one who allows others to play expansive strokes.

They (Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow) were fantastic in the first two games, and when they play well, everything else usually falls into place. But when they go cheaply, as they did on Sunday, England are without the glue provided by Joe Root. However well Ben Stokes did in the second match, there is only one man to bat at three in the 50-over side. They have missed Root in this series. Morgan may have said ‘this is the way we play’ after England went down all guns blazing in the first match, but Root is a massive part of the way they play in ODIs because he allows everyone else to be expansive,” Hussain wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.

England have certainly missed Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes: Nasser Hussain

Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain. Image-Getty.

Nasser Hussain also pointed out that England missed Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes in ODIs even as their death bowling came good on Sunday. Nevertheless, the Chennai-born former player observed that the death bowling was poor for in the first two fixtures. Hussain remarked that the Three Lions must find a backup spinner for Adil Rashid should he gets injured and the conditions never demanded a chance for Matt Parkinson to prove himself.

“England have certainly missed Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes, even though their death bowling was better on Sunday. In their absence, a lot of that death bowling, particularly in the second game, was naive. The only concern is they are no nearer to finding a replacement should Rashid get injured because conditions dictated Matt Parkinson never got a chance in these matches,” he added.

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