Joe Root needs to be hard on himself if he wants to be great, feels Nasser Hussain

England skipper Joe Root’s devasting Ashes run as he once again failed to capitalise on the start. Root departed after scoring another fifty in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

The 26-year-old root has now registered 34 fifties and only 13 hundred, in comparison to Smith, who has 21 fifties and 22 centuries.

‘The greatest batsmen – guys like Virat Kohli and Steve Smith – have excellent conversion rates. They grasp the simple fact that you don’t win Tests with pretty 50s and 60s: you win them with big hundreds or even doubles,” former England captain Nasser Hussain was heard saying to the Daily Mail.

Hussain further admitted that Root needs to sit down and ask himself whether he is working out those percentages properly.

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“He’s got all the shots in the world. But if he wants to be remembered as one of the greats – and he has the talent – then he’ll need to be harder on himself,” Hussain stated.

The 49-year-old Hussain also advised Root to learn from his teammate and former skipper Alastair Cook, who scored a magnificent unbeaten double hundred to put an end to his dismal run.

“You could hardly get two more different batsmen, Cook has always had a dodgy technique, whereas Root’s is almost flawless. Root clearly has this inbuilt desire to entertain but Cook is there to score runs. He’s said himself that he’s not fussed with the aesthetics of the game, as Root obviously is – and a good thing too, because it makes cricket so much more watchable,’ Hussain elaborated.

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Hussain concluded saying that it will be on Root to decide whether he wants to score big or get out scoring a flawless 60.

“It will be up to him [Root] now to work out which way he wants to go. Does he want to keep making attractive 60s and walking off furious with himself, or does he want to take a leaf out of Cook’s book and go for the jugular?” Hussain signed off.

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