Joe Root<\/a> has said it would be “silly” to change England’s management team after losing the Ashes, with players “absolutely committed” to the current set-up.<\/p>\nEngland meekly surrendered the famous urn after just 11 days of play with back-to-back eight-wicket defeats in Perth and Brisbane and an 82-run loss at Adelaide.<\/p>\n
Their capitulation was compounded by criticism of their low-key preparations and allegations of excessive drinking during a mid-series beach break in Noosa.<\/p>\n
The team restored some pride with a frantic four-wicket win in Melbourne, snapping an 18-match winless streak on Australian soil.<\/p>\n
It relieved pressure on coach Brendon McCullum, skipper Ben Stokes and cricket chief Rob Key, who have all indicated they want to stay in their roles.<\/p>\n
“In terms of the playing group, we’re absolutely committed to the management,” Root, England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer and a former captain, told English media in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
“Yes, we can be better and there are certain areas that we’ll continue to keep working at, but the management work extremely hard.<\/p>\n
“They might do things in a slightly different way, but I think we’ve made great strides as a group and a big reason for it is because of the guys we have behind us.”<\/p>\n
Management’s case to stay on would be strengthened by another win in the fifth Test in Sydney starting Sunday.<\/p>\n
Root was captain on England’s last tour of Australia in 2021-22 when they were crushed 4-0, costing coach Chris Silverwood and cricket director Ashley Giles their jobs.<\/p>\n
But Root said a lot of progress had been made since under the current regime.<\/p>\n
“You look at the group of players we’ve got and you look at the guys that were involved in the team when I was captain, four years ago, and you look at their records individually, and every single one of them has improved as a player,” he said.<\/p>\n
“This team has improved. I think it would be silly (to consider change) for the amount of hard work and things that have been done.”<\/p>\n
Victory in Melbourne was Root’s first in Australia in more than a decade of trying and he said it “would be better if we win next week as well”.<\/p>\n
“If we can build on it and do it again next time it’s momentum in the right direction for the next tour here (in 2029-30),” he added.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joe Root has played 17 previous Tests in Australia without winning. Photo: AFP MELBOURNE: Veteran England batsman Joe Root has said it would be “silly” to change England’s management team after losing the Ashes, with players “absolutely committed” to the current set-up. England meekly surrendered the famous urn after just 11 days of play with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/whatsapp-image-2025-12-29-at-7-00-48-am1767013406-0\/whatsapp-image-2025-12-29-at-7-00-48-am1767013406-0-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t