Joe Root & Co. had managed to get away to an extent after their horror performances in the Ashes and the tour of New Zealand. Not many teams are doing well outside their home in recent times, and England did not turn out to be an exception.
However, things are not looking good now after Pakistan thrashed them by nine wickets at Lord’s last week.
The repercussions soon followed as English players faced widespread criticism for their dismal performances. Former England skipper, Michael Vaughan even went to the extent of opining either of Stuart Broad and James Anderson soon be dropped for the do-or-die second Test.
Vaughan’s suggestion looked a bit absurd, as the batsmen’s failure was one of the biggest reasons behind the defeat.
At the same time, one can say Vaughan’s suggestion was not purely cricket-based. The former batsman wanted to see a change to shake Joe Root’s faltering team. Root’s team has lost six of the last eight Test matches.
A similar decision was made in 2008 when Vaughan axed 2005 Ashes heroes, Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison for the Wellington Test against New Zealand after a crushing defeat in the first match of the series. Broad and Anderson were the beneficiaries back then.
But Anderson is no mood to take the criticism in his stride. England’s highest wicket-taker in Tests admitted the duo fared poorly at Lord’s but was quick to disagree with Vaughan’s suggestions.
“It wasn’t our best performance last week and when that happens – when you suffer a heavy defeat – there’s always a lot of noise,” he said. “Lots more opinions come out. This has to be done. That has to be done. There’s not a lot as players we can do about that.
“We’ve 950 Test wickets between us. We’re doing the best we can for this team. I know we’ve been on a really bad run of form this winter and the first Test here and I think in these situations you need players to stand up and put in match-winning performances.”
“I think we have a lot of quality in the dressing room – not just me and Stuart. There’s lots of players can stick their hand up and put in match-winning performances. That’s all we can focus on. We’ll try to block out the noise from whoever is shouting out.”
The veteran bowler further disagreed that England’s performance at Lord’s “was one of the worst” he has suffered as an international player.
On a pitch where Pakistan bowlers bowled out the hosts for 184, the hosts conceded 363.
The first innings lead pretty much sealed the fate of the game, as Pakistan only had 65 runs to chase in the second innings.