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How burnt-out is Joe Root right now?
Joe Root plays a lot of cricket. He recently played a lot of one-day cricket and won the World Cup. Pretty soon he will be playing the Ashes, where he will be England’s captain.
Being England captain for an Ashes is quite a wearing job. We understand he’s also going to bat at three, which basically means opening the batting if you play for England (which Joe Root does).
Considering all of this, Joe Root really needs to start the Ashes nice and fresh because he’s only going to get more and more tired as he tackles five Tests in (checks) six-and-a-half weeks.
So is Joe Root fresh?
As we just mentioned, he’s just played a whole World Cup. He also opted to play a Test match against Ireland a couple of days later despite being given the chance to sit it out. (There are photographs of baby Joe Root in a cot with a cricket bat. It’s safe to assume that Joe Root is not a person who is ever going to voluntarily sit out a Test match.)
The image at the top of the page is Joe Root’s face after the Ireland match. Joe Root has very often been described as ‘fresh-faced’ but do you know a phrase we would definitely not use to describe the face in that image? That’s right – ‘fresh-faced’.
Joe Root has gained wrinkles and we’re pretty sure he’s gained them in the last fortnight. He’s not gone full gnarl-dog, but there’s been a definite raisinning of his facial skin in certain areas. To us it speaks of bone-depth fatigue.
How burnt-out is Joe Root? We’d say that Joe Root is already about 42 per cent burnt-out.
I remember during the 2017 ashes, he looked like an old man
Who’s up for a bit of right-arm fast-medium then?
Would have been nice to see them find room for Curran, but probably would have meant either dropping Woakes or a batsman. And Archer is clearly not fit.
There’s always Moeen Ali, aka. The Passenger.
And can someone please get the message out that Jonny Bairstow is rubbish, finished at this level, looking over his shoulder at his place in the side etc etc?
Disappointed to see Bairstow in the side, he looks past it to me. Rather give that young lad Vince a try.
They need to add this picture to this bunch that Sam unearthed a few months ago:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/nintchdbpict000301536721.jpg?strip=all&w=960
Merry Ashes Eve, everyone.
Flipping ‘eck, it’s only the Ashes
I am singularly unprepared for the turmoil of an Ashes series – my heart rate has only just returned to a healthy level after the World Cup
We’d totally forgotten that we really massively care about it until we heard the audible crowd nervousness before the first ball.
Nothing matters. Life is meaningless. Except for The 2019 Specsavers Ashes.
Really missing The Magellan Ashes (“Movement rate of all ships is increased by two”).
2 down… That’s a decent start.
Too used to watching ODI/2020 cricket I have realised. This has been action packed by any standards and yet it feels slow…
Ps. Is this the through the day thread?
Think so.
Just imagine if England had a couple of bowlers who could do anything different now.
But it has been the two fast medium guys who everyone said should be dropped for being too fast medium who have done all the damage with their fast medium bowling.
Yes, they made that look like a thoroughly stupid comment for a bit. Fortunately(?) it’s now making sense again.
Stuart Broad is aausam. And possibly dead, or just resting.
Shove it up your arse, they’re best fast-medium bowlers in the world, etc etc.