England skipper Joe Root admits he’s exhausted after World Cup fairytale
JOE ROOT admits he is shattered by his World Cup heroics just five days before he leads England into Ashes battle.
England demolished Ireland for just 38 at Lord’s yesterday to win the Test by 143 runs.
But they must play Australia in the First Test at Edgbaston on Thursday and, asked if he is knackered, captain Root replied: “It would be wrong to say I’m not.
“It’s been ten weeks of hard cricket of high emotion and ups and downs. It does take a lot out of you.
“But I feel like I’ve planned for this. I knew it was a quick turnaround into Test cricket after the World Cup. It’s not perfect but you have to suck it up and get on with it.
“We’ve come from the unknown, we’ve never been in a position where we’ve won a World Cup. For half of this side to be part of that and then quickly adjust to Test cricket is unusual. The scheduling now has to be managed player on player very frequently.”
Root and most of the players are not expected to train again until Tuesday so England hope a few days at home and the excitement of an Ashes contest will rev them up.
Root has played 22 matches this season for Yorkshire and England. He could normally handle that but the roller-coaster of the World Cup has drained the reserves of all the players.
He believes he can cope with the workload.
Root added: “I think in terms of mentally coping we’ve done all right in this game.
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“We tried to be smart about resting a couple of guys (Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler) to make sure they were absolutely ready.
“I turned up extremely excited for the Test summer and I’m pleased we managed to find a way to win this match. It will be a hard slog for guys to play all five Tests against Australia and be at the top of their game.
“The medical staff and bowlers have to be very honest about doing all they can to be fit and ready. If that’s not the case, we’re fortunate to have a good pool of skilful bowlers.”
