CONGRATULATIONS to England’s new cricket captain Joe Root, with a 3-1 series win over South Africa, with the support of the rest of the team, clearly winning on merit.
The burden of captaincy has not affected Joe’s batting.
I feel that with two or three of the upper and middle order batting places being sorted out, England have a good and balanced team.
The forthcoming tour to Australia may well prove to be a much stronger challenge to all the chosen players concerned.
As Wilfred Rhodes said to Len Hutton before he embarked on the 1954/55 tour, to win in Australia you need to be 25 per cent better than they are. Douglas Jardine, captain of the infamous Bodyline tour, also said to Len, your tour will be much tougher than mine was. England were victorious.
In my opinion, Jardine and Hutton’s teams were two of the strongest teams ever to tour Australia.
After England were beaten by South Africa at Trent Bridge, Peter Rickaby was extremely critical of the England team’s gung-ho approach.
Maybe Mr Rickaby would like to raise a glass or two to the well deserved 3-1 win over South Africa.
Mike Kitching, Old Malton
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