You're right. Root can't do the ballistic bit. It's a sad fact that the two squads are drifting further and further apart into almost entirely specialist disciplines. Test cricket and one-day cricket are just moving further and further apart.
Ridiculous - sorry utterly ridiculous - the man has more one-day centuries than any Englishman bar Trescothick. Stokes is another basher though of course he comes back in - at some point England are going to need an accumulator even in these days (see Pakistan last year). By all means change the order when needed but give me a batsmen like Root rather than the all-too-often brainless Hales (and yes he played well yesterday) any day of the year
I am just saying maybe he should duck out for a bit and sort his game out. My bigger concern here is for the test side. Root has been underperforming (for him) for a while and there is a definite confusion in his game. This becomes more evident in the one day game. He can get stuck at one end early in his innings but lately his ability to up the pace once he settles seems to be lacking.
Yesterday a patient innings was fine, given the situation. It was Hales who did it- Root got himself out as soon as he tried to go through the gears.
I want Root to focus on his test game and start scoring horrifically dull double hundreds.....
Yeah - take your point on concentrating on the Test side but I think the captaincy is more of an issue there not that he is playing one-day cricket. My rant was more directed at an idiot on Twitter yesterday who I refrained from engaging with, who said that picking Root was a throwback to 90s cricket. Don't think Root has been that out of touch in the one-day game though - only been a few games since he scored a ton (in NZ) and a fair few other decent scores besides
And I should probably clarify that, fair or not, I dont judge Root by the same standard as everyone else. Sorry, but he is better than that and we need him to be.
I dont see a problem with letting him sit out a few games and maybe having a look at someone else. He has a great game in both formats but at present I think he is fumbling slightly in both. We are talking about a bloke who is as good as anyone in the world.
Looking ahead to the World Cup, I am not questioning his place. But we are a way off yet.