England duo Jos Buttler (left) and Joe Root during their Cricket World Cup clash with Sri Lanka.Credit:Getty Images
“Man for man I’d have this team every day over the Australians. We might not have played as well as we can do,but we know when we play our best stuff the best teams struggle to compete with us,” he said.
Australia have thoroughly enjoyed England’s predicament,with Pat Cummins laughing while saying it was “sad to see” their dreadful form. “Let’s face it,if it was the other way around,would we be doing the same? Probably. So it hurts,it always hurts to be in this position to be sat at the bottom of the table,” said Root. “If it motivates us a little bit more great.”
The form of the two sides could not be more different. While England have become whipping boys,Australia have recovered from defeats in their opening two matches to win their next four and are looking to shore up their semi-final position. They were made stronger bythe return from injury of Travis Head,who hit a hundred in his first game back in the side against New Zealand last week.
But the past 24 hours may have evened the contest with Australia hit by two big blows in losing their aggressive,big-hitting all-rounders Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell.Marsh,who smoked an Ashes hundred at Leeds in June,has gone home briefly for personal reasons andMaxwell suffered a freakish injury falling off a golf buggy;the kind of hapless incident you expect to happen to England at the moment.
If England can break through early against the dangerous Head andDavid Warner,they will not fear Australia hurting them with the bat. Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne can drag an innings down in ODI cricket,with realistically room for one but not both in the same team.
However,at the moment you would not trust England to chase 200 as soon as Australia apply any pressure with the ball after their top order collapsed with four for nine runs against India on Sunday,which included ducks for Root and Ben Stokes.