Joe Root bemoans England's familiar failings in second Test defeat

GEORGE DOBELL AT THE ADELAIDE OVAL: Despite declaring himself "proud" of the resilience shown on day five, Australia's 275-run victory leaves the tourists needing a historic comeback to regain the urn

Joe Root has admitted frustration with his England team as they subsided to a 275-run defeat in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide.

The result leaves them 2-0 down in the series and needing victory in all three of the remaining Tests if they are to reclaim the Ashes. No England team has ever come from 2-0 down to win the series.

While Root, the England captain, said he was “very proud” of the “attitude and desire” his team showed on the final day when they came within 21 overs of securing an unlikely draw, he also bemoaned a side which “made the same mistakes” as in the previous Test in Brisbane.

Coming from a usually mild-mannered captain, Root’s criticisms of his side for making “very basic” errors were striking. In particular, he expressed frustration with the length his seamers kept bowling, the “amount of no-balls that we keep bowling and the amount of chances that we keep missing.”

^{Even in the absence of Pat Cummins, Steve Smith stepped into the breach with aplomb (William West/AFP/Getty Images)}

“I’m very proud of the way the guys fought today,” Root said. “The attitude and the desire. That’s how we need to go about a whole Test. We can’t just leave it to the last day and pull off an enormous feat like we had to today.

“The disappointing thing is we made the same mistakes as last week. We just can’t afford to do that. That’s the frustrating thing about this game.

“When we had the ball in hand, we didn’t bowl the right lengths. We needed to be fuller. We needed to be braver. You have to be able to put the ball in the same areas for long enough.

“But the most disappointing thing for me is the amount of no-balls that we keep bowling and the amount of chances that we keep missing.

“You have to score runs and you have to take chances. We’ve not executed very basic things for the second game in a row now.

^{Jos Buttler player his second-longest Test innings (balls faced) but it was not enough (William West/AFP/Getty Images)}

“We need to learn and we need to learn fast. We can’t make the same mistakes that we have made so far. We have to have the same attitude that we have today.”

Despite Root’s frustrations, he insisted he retained faith that his side have “what it takes to win Tests” in Australia.

“I’m convinced that we’ve got what it takes to win Tests over here,” Root said. “I don’t think that Australia are that much better in these conditions.

“We have to believe. We need to have that same attitude that we showed today. If we do that, I’m convinced we have what we need to win Tests over here.

“But we’re not going to do that if we keep missing chances and don’t give ourselves an opportunity to get into the Test match with the bat. We need to find ways of building partnerships and making big contributions. But a lot of what happened today has given me confidence going forward.”

Root was particularly impressed with the resistance shown by Jos Buttler on the final day. After an early let-off – Buttler could have been caught on nought as he sliced a drive between the keeper and first slip – he knuckled down to produce his second-longest innings in terms of balls (207) faced before a slightly unfortunate dismissal when he trod on his own stumps in playing back to a delivery from Jhye Richardson.

Having been dismissed for a duck in the first innings and dropped several chances, it was an innings which, Root thought demonstrated impressive strength of character.

“Everyone was gutted because he played extremely well,” Root said. “One thing about Jos is that anyone who can handle a World Cup final, read the situation, the game and be as composed as he was throughout that can manage situations like that within this Test match. I think he should gain a huge amount of confidence from the way he played today. He showed the ability not to just perform in those conditions but in his defence. Hopefully, he can take a lot from that into the rest of the series."

Our coverage of the Ashes is brought to you in association with Cricket 22

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