17 February 2024 , 13:07
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Former England captain Michael Vaughan has slapped down Piers Morgan after the broadcaster backed Joe Root following his dismal dismissal against India.
Just 20 minutes into Day Three of the third test between England and India, Root attempted his trademark reverse sweep shot. But rather than send the ball out to the boundary, it ended up in the hands of Yashasvi Jaiswal at second slip.
It was a familiar story for England cricket fans, with Root having been caught out while attempting the reverse sweep several times before. But Morgan has leapt to his defence, insisting that anyone criticising Root should give 'their head a wobble'.
"England cricket fans who turn on players like Root whenever they get out to an aggressive shot need to give their traditional old wizened heads a massive wobble. Bazball is brilliant - good, bad, sometimes ugly, but usually scintillating, and always thrilling to watch," Morgan tweeted.
Morgan's argument did not wash with Vaughan, who captained England for five years. Instead, Vaughan insisted that Root is too good a player to gift India such a key wicket at such a key time in the test.
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"Utter rubbish piers .. the skipper doesn’t Bazball .. he plays the situation .. Joe is far too good to gift India such a cheap wicket 20 mins into a crucial day when they are down to 10 players .. Sport is about changing styles at the right time," Vaughan replied on Twitter.
Root's dismissal kicked off a stunning collapse for England, with Jonny Bairstow, Ben Duckett, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes all falling in quick succession. They were bowled out for 319, leaving them with a huge deficit of 126 to India's first innings score.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Should England drop Joe Root after his latest dismissal? Comment below.
Root was caught out just 20 minutes into Day Three of the third test between England and India (Philip Brown/Popperfoto/Popperfoto via Getty Images)The visitors endured a final slide of 5-29 after lunch in what was a disastrous day for Stokes' side. Though Root dismissed Rohit Sharma early on, Yashasvi Jaiswal scored another hundred to see India take full control, though Duckett was defensive of his team-mates.
"No, 100% not," Duckett told TNT Sports when asked if he felt it was now game over. "I think even sending in a nightwatchman when you're 320 ahead at the end shows that they're slightly wary of us.
"We're going to continue the way that we play and if we get two or three blokes in on that pitch scoring quickly then you never know what can happen. They were quite attacking sweeps yesterday.
"But I was quite gutted a couple of games ago when I got out to Kuldeep caught at silly point, so my game is if they want to attack and have people around the bat then I'll try to get rid of them and then I can rotate a lot easier.
"Rooty's a freak, he can do things a lot of us can't do. In my eyes it's just the same as playing a drive and nicking off to second slip. He plays that shot so well, and I'm sure those people weren't saying that when he hit Cummins for six in the summer."