"Joe Root's greatest skill for England over the last few years has not been his captaincy, he's not going to be Brearley-esque as a captain, his greatest asset is getting runs."
Tuesday 19 December 2017 17:03, UK
Nasser Hussain says Joe Root is replicating the journey made by numerous former England captains and should focus on his batting for the final two Test matches of this Ashes series.
Root has struggled for runs in Australia, averaging just 29.33 with a top score of 67 in the first three Tests while his opposite number, Steve Smith, has made 429 runs at 142 in helping Australia regain the urn.
With the series lost and England fighting to avoid a whitewash, Hussain thinks Root should be putting his efforts into doing what he has done best for England over the last few years: scoring runs.
"I don't think he looks like a beaten man, I think there's been a realisation that the job in Australia is incredibly difficult," he told Sky Sports News.
"I think he's followed exactly the same path as previous England captains have done, whether that is Michael Atherton, Michael Vaughan, Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, myself, where you have an upturn in form - he hit 190 at Lord's in his first game as England captain, runs in the summer - and then slowly the job starts to wear you down a little bit when defeats come.
"I thought his was a tired shot in the second innings at Perth, the shot of a man who had spent two days in the field trying to work out how to get Steve Smith and Australia out with a bit of a pop-gun attack and then he went out as a man with a tired brain.
"That is one thing that England are going to have to put right. Joe Root's greatest skill for England over the last few years has not been his captaincy, he's not going to be Brearley-esque as a captain, his greatest asset is getting runs. He's seen the opposition captain, Steve Smith, getting runs and Joe needs to go to the next two Test matches, concentrate on his batting and get big hundreds."
However, Hussain does not think the captaincy is a reason for Root's dip in form and reaffirmed his view that the Yorkshireman should be batting at No 3.
"He should be captain. His stats are that he averages 50 as captain and 52 not as captain so he hasn't fallen off a cliff like certain previous captains have," Hussain added. "I've said all along that he should be batting at No 3, your best player should be at No 3.
"James Vince has done all right at three - in the second innings in Perth I thought he did quite well, actually, before he got that absolute beauty from Mitchell Starc - but I've always felt that just to set the tone, Joe Root should go out at No 3.
"Australia is a real anomaly, to be honest. Root is a wonderful, fluent player, he gets runs in England but he goes to Australia and in two series he averages about 28. Australia is a great place to bat.
"They might have some very good bowlers but it is a magnificent place to bat and Joe Root, eventually, has to crack batting in Australia."
While Root's run tally is some way short of what England fans have come to expect, he has been almost prolific in comparison to his predecessor, Alastair Cook.
The 32-year-old opener has scored just 83 runs in six innings at an average of 13.83 with a high quality Australia bowling attack making the most of a poor run of form for the ex-skipper. But is Cook's international career coming to an end?
"I hope not," Hussain said. "I think it is a very important two Tests matches, obviously for Alastair himself but also for English cricket because I don't think English cricket will be in a better place if Alastair Cook fails in the next two Test matches and he decides or England decided that that's it.
"I think that makes England a worse team. He is a once-in-a-generation cricketer, 150 Test matches, 11,000 Test runs, 30-odd hundreds - you don't get them too often.
"Be careful what you wish for, when he's gone and he's getting loads of runs for Essex next summer people will be saying 'oh, did we get rid of Cook too quickly?' Alastair Cook has been through these periods but only he will know that you can only go to that well so often and dig deep, especially with his technique that has not always been perfect, and get the runs."
