Joe Root has dismissed David Warner‘s jibe that he will need to “take the surfboard off his front leg” if he and England are to triumph in Australia this winter.
Warner fired the first shots in the phoney Ashes war by highlighting Root’s failure to score a hundred in Australia, suggesting that Test cricket’s second-highest run-scorer tends to get out lbw a lot.
“Josh Hazlewood tends to have his number quite a lot. He will have to take the surfboard off his front leg,” said Warner, who retired from international cricket last year but is in England with London Spirit in The Hundred and set to play against Root’s Trent Rockets at Lord’s on Thursday.
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Nothing New
Asked on a media call if he had laughed off the jibe, Root said: “Just that. I can’t have any control on how people see the game or talk in interview.
“Nothing new, is it? You know there are going to be storylines and people wanting to hype up a big series. Doesn’t really change anything.
“It’s sort of irrelevant to me. What can I do about it? Just make sure it’s not a talking point in six months or 100 days time.
“When you get out there you’ve got to try and impact the game and help your team get off to a good start. Business as usual as far as I’m concerned.
“I guess it’s all part of the fun. We’ll see what happens out there (with Warner at Lord’s). It’s not really in my nature to get too verbal.”
Root’s insatiable appetite for scoring runs shows no sign of slowing down with 22 hundreds in his last 61 Tests.
Only India’s Sachin Tendulkar has now scored more Test runs than Root, who now has 13,543 to his name and is 2,378 from top spot.
Addressing his poor record in Australia remains a priority for Root, who will be playing in his fourth Ashes series Down Under this winter.
“The thing that stands out for me is I wanted it way too much the last couple of times,” said Root. “It took me away from what was important.
“Clearly the last few tours there have been loads of other things to contend with… a lot of distractions.
“This time I just want to go and enjoy the tour for what it is. It’s a beautiful country, great place to go and play cricket. It’s going to be hostile, everything you’d expect and want from an away Ashes series.
“That’s something you’ve got to relish. Going there with 150-odd Test matches under my belt, I feel couldn’t be more ready for it.”
The Hundred
Root has thrown himself into The Hundred, in which the Rockets have picked up two opening wins, despite the exhausting demands of the recent five-Test series against India, which was drawn 2-2.
The 34-year-old expects to feature in September’s white-ball home Test against South Africa, although he says no conversation has been held about his participation in another three-match pre-Ashes one-day international series in New Zealand.
“It was physically quite tiring, we fielded a lot,” Root reflected on the India series. “It was mentally tiring as all the games went pretty much down to the wire.
“But when you flick into a new format, and a new dressing room, it can energise you in a different way.
“It’s nice we’ve started so well. We’ve got a good group, and we’ll try and roll that momentum forward.”
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