Ashes 2021-22: Joe Root’s Comment On Bowlers’ Performance Has Divided England Dressing Room: Steve Harmison

Former England pacer Steve Harmison has come down hard on captain Joe Root and said that him blaming the fast bowlers for the loss in the second Test of the ongoing Ashes 2021-22 series in Adelaide have done nothing but divided the dressing room into two.

England is not having a very good Ashes series down under as they started it by losing the first Test in Brisbane by 9 wickets. And then in the second Test, a day-night pink ball affair in Adelaide, England succumbed to a 275-run loss. This was despite Australia missing two of their top bowlers in Josh Hazlewood and captain Pat Cummins.

England batters have been absent from the party as only Joe Root and Dawid Malan have shown some intent to score runs against Australian bowlers, while openers Haseeb Hameed and Rory Burns have been walking wickets.

Meanwhile, Root bemoaned England’s performance with both bat and ball and said:

‘The reason it’s disappointing is we made the same mistakes. We could’ve bowled fuller in the first innings and we need to be better with the bat.

‘We need to make bigger scores and apply ourselves better. We’re more than capable of doing it but we haven’t so far and that’s why it’s disappointing. With the ball in hand, we didn’t bowl the right lengths. We needed to bowl fuller. As soon as we did in the second innings, we created chances. That’s frustrating.”

The two teams will now face off in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne from December 26 onwards.

Joe Root’s Comments Have Turned Into A Batsman Vs Bowlers Situation In Dressing Room: Steve Harmison

Steve Harmison believes that Root’s comments directed towards the bowlers could cause huge issues within the visitors’ camp.

“What’s worrying about Root’s comments is that his words directed at the bowlers turns any team meeting into a batsman vs bowlers situation. The bowlers might see Buttler face 200 balls on a fifth day pitch as England only score 230 and 190 and think that’s not good enough and say ‘I won’t let anyone have a go at me like that. You can tell me to pitch it up all you want but you lot have to score runs.

That’s when it turns nasty in dressing rooms and all of a sudden fractions come – there’s groups of twos and threes forming – and it tends to be the bowling unit that stays together and has a go at the batsman,” Harmison was quoted by Metro.co.uk.

He also named his England XI for the upcoming MCG Test and picked Zak Crawley in place of Haseeb Hameed and also brought in Mark Wood.

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