Disappointing to be not more consistent: Root rues missed opportunity

"Man for man I'd have this team every day over the Australians.”

The 32-year-old Joe Root was brave with his opinion about the dominant Australian team, stating that England have the tools to beat the men in Yellow. Despite five defeats in six games, the Three Lions have an opportunity to set records straight with a win over their arch-rivals Australia in Ahmedabad. 

"This group of players have three opportunities to [...] play at the level we expect of ourselves: I fully believe we are more than capable of doing that on Saturday. Man for man, I'd have this team every day over the Australians,” Root said prior to the clash against Australia, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

“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,” Root added.

Root echoed the opinions of the management, stating that this team has underachieved throughout the tournament. The 32-year-old also added that, ideally, they should have sat right at the top of the table instead of the bottom. 

"I look at this team and it's more than capable of achieving way more than it has done throughout this tournament. The quality of players we have, we should be sat right at the top of this [table]. We all know that, and we're all very frustrated that isn't the case,” Root added.

"Let's face it: if it was the other way around, would we be doing the same? Probably," Root said. "It hurts - it always hurts to be in this position to be sat at the bottom of the table. It's not what we expect of ourselves. If it motivates us a little bit more, then great."

After the 77 and 82 in the first two clashes against New Zealand and Bangladesh, Root’s World Cup has taken a nosedive. In the four games that followed, the Yorkshire batter had scores of 11, 2, 3 and a duck recently against India. 

"I feel really good in my game," he insisted. "It's been really frustrating: I've had a silly run-out [against Sri Lanka], a caught leg slip [against South Africa] which is pretty unusual in this format, and - I'll be careful how I say this - a dubious lbw decision in the last game [against India].

"That's sometimes how it goes. It's been really disappointing to not be more consistent: that's what I expect of myself. I looked at the situation against India on that wicket and thought it was laid out perfectly for me to go and win us that game, start turning our bad run of games around."