Former New Zealand player Brendon McCullum has said that while the cricketing fraternity speaks highly about Joe Root as a “very good leader”, he hasn’t seen that quality in the England Test captain.
England suffered a humiliating nine-wicket loss in the opening Ashes Test at The Gabba in Brisbane on the back of the captain curiously deciding to rest his pace spearheads, Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, both of whom share over 1,100 Test wickets among themselves.
“I think Joe Root is a wonderful guy, an outstanding cricketer and they talk about him as a very good leader. I haven’t really seen it,” the 40-year-old McCullum, who has played over 100 Tests and scored nearly 6,500 runs, told SENZ Breakfast on Monday.
McCullum was at a loss to understand why Root, who set an English record for most Test runs in a calendar year with 1,544, hasn’t been able to lead his side on the back of such a scintillating performance with the bat.
The Gabba loss was England’s seventh defeat this year and came after they had wrestled back the initiative following a disastrous first innings, where they could manage just 147. This year England lost the away series to India 1-3, followed by a 0-1 loss to New Zealand in the two-Test series at home. They are trailing India 1-2 in the five-Test series played at home, with the postponed last game to be played later in 2022.
McCullum said that England had their chances in the second innings when Dawid Malan and Root were going strong, but both threw away their wickets in the 80s.
“England had opportunities, they had their chances, but they just weren’t really strong enough. When the pressure came on and Australia started to flex, England just went missing. That’s their seventh Test loss in the calendar year which is just remarkable. Their worst ever has been eight and it’s been some time since that.
“The worst ever in the history of Test cricket is nine by Bangladesh. It’s been a pretty dire Test match year for England,” opined McCullum.
“There’s only really one player who is scoring any runs for them and that’s the skipper Joe Root,” he added.
McCullum said he felt that Root, at times, allows the game to drift.
“To me, leadership is not just about being able to make the right calls at the right time tactically as a skipper. He’s not, to me, up there as one of the best in the world at it. He allows games to drift at times. When they had Australia on the ropes the other day, he allowed the game to drift. If you give Australia any chance of being able to fight their way back they will.
“What is of more concern is that leadership is not just about being the best player in the team. Leadership is about inspiring those around you to achieve higher success than they would otherwise achieve,” he said.
