Former England pacer Steve Harmison has shared his opinion on the team’s precarious position on all fronts in the ongoing Ashes in Australia wherein the visitors are down 0-2, with more doubts than ever about their captaincy, batting, bowling, tactics, and overall approach.
According to him, if India are unable to turn things around in the remaining three matches of the series, he ponders that the England captain stares at a grim future in terms of captaincy. In a conversation with Daily Mail Sports, the 43-year-old acknowledged that if the present scenario continues, he wouldn’t be shocked if Joe Root himself steps down as skipper.
He said, “If this carries on Joe will be looking in the mirror and saying ‘what’s the point? I’ll go back to being a batsman and averaging 50 every year. But I want the IPL on my CV too. I want to be England’s best multi-format player’.”
Harmison added that if England loses the series, there will be doubts about Joe Root because by assuming such positions, they are setting themselves up to be fired at. He reckons, “But if people think it’s as simple as replacing him and [head coach] Chris Silverwood, they want their heads shaking. We’ve got a system problem in this country.”
Following Alastair Cook’s departure in 2017, Joe Root was named England captain. The English team has also lost the last ten of its eleven Tests in Australia, and has been below average in the two matches in the ongoing Ashes. Further, he claims that Durham’s Ben Stokes is the only possible replacement for Root if the worst happens, and the Ashes go south from here. However, he believes it would be burdening Stokes with too many roles.
According to Harmison, Stokes may be capable of doing superhuman things as he has demonstrated in the past but it would be a mistake to think in that direction while choosing a captain.
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