Townsville: England captain Joe Root told Australia to ‘bring it on’, vowing to fight fire with fire as his team expect a hostile reception at next week’s first Ashes Test at the Gabba in Brisbane. Root asserted Tuesday he was unfazed by talk that Australia would target him.
“From our point of view, we’ll be targeting every single one of them (the Australians),” the 26-year-old told reporters ahead of a second four-day warm-up match against the Cricket Australia XI here starting Wednesday.
“Bring it on. It’s what it’s about. It should be a great series and they’ve got some great players within their squad and some good characters as well… they’ve got a lot of quality in their attack but we’ve got a lot of quality in our team as well,” added the England captain.
Root said he expected a ‘hostile… very loud and rowdy atmosphere’ in Brisbane, but said England were working hard to be ‘absolutely ready’ for the first game.
One key concern is a lack of big runs for England’s top order in the warm-up games so far, with no batsman going on to score a century despite most getting good starts, and a lack of runs for former captain Alastair Cook.
“I still think that this game, that’s one of the things we really want to get out of it, is guys going on and making big hundreds,” Root pointed out.
“If we get the opportunity to do that, that’s definitely the mentality we’ll have as a batting side and that’s something we’re going to have to have throughout the five…Test matches. They (Australia) should realize that we are wiser than what we were when we visited the last time,” added the England captain.
Cummins keen to emulate Johnson
Brisbane: Fast bowler Pat Cummins is uncertain whether his body can handle the demands of five Ashes tests but the young paceman hopes to emulate Mitchell Johnson and become an Australian wrecking ball against England’s batting line-up. When England visited the last time in 2013/14, Johnson had been in devastating form picking up 37 wickets. “We saw what Mitchell Johnson did last Ashes series here – it would be a role I would love to play,” Cummins told reporters here Tuesday.
Agence France-Presse
