Outplayed and outperformed but we will stick together, says Root after crushing loss

JOE ROOT admitted his England side had been ‘outplayed and outperformed’ in their humiliating Wisden Trophy defeat.

‘It’s very disappointing, we came here to win and to find ourselves out of it with a game to go is hard to take,’ said Root.

‘We have been outplayed, outperformed and we have to take that on the chin. We have to learn some lessons from it. It was definitely a bowlerfriendly surface. I wouldn’t say it was a fair contest between bat and ball. But both sides have played on it and they’ve managed certain areas better than us.’

Such an embarrassing defeat threatens to turn their golden year into an annus horribilis with the high hopes for dual World Cup and Ashes glory in 2019 taking another kick on the way down from the West Indies attack.

At the start of January, England were second in the Test rankings behind India, yet the second comprehensive crushing in the Caribbean within seven days means they will slip to fifth if, as expected, Ashes rivals Australia complete a 2-0 series victory over Sri Lanka.

England now head to St Lucia in desperate need of turning around a woeful run of batting scores with the Ashes just six months away.

Only once in four attempts here have they posted a score in excess of 200.

‘We have got to be better at what we do, or maybe do things slightly differently. I can’t bat for 11 guys, neither can Trevor Bayliss or Ramps [batting coach Mark Ramprakash],’ said Root. ‘The responsibility is down to the individual. But we will stick together and work on it as a group and try and come back with a strong response.’

In contrast to Darren Bravo, whose extraordinary restraint saw him score West Indies’ slowest ever half- century — an effort that spanned in excess of five and a half fours — Root and Jos Buttler excepted, England went down to a clutch of rash or injudicious strokes.

Kemar Roach doubled his tally for the match to eight, to take the man- of- the- match award and Jason Holder, his predecessor from last week’s humbling in Barbados, also bagged a quartet.

Root said: ‘They have some very unique bowlers. Roach has a very different approach to how a typical standard right arm action is and they gave good variety. They’ve found a way of complementing others very well.’

Holder, meanwhile, paid tribute to the most extraordinary performance of all, that of 22-year-old fast bowler Alzarri Joseph, whose mother Sharon died between the second and third days of the Win dies ’10- wicket triumph. ‘We started the day knowing it was a daunting task, trying to push on in the lead and obviously we got some news this morning that Alzarri’s mum passed away,’ said Holder.

‘So we rallied around each other. We wanted to do it for her and obviously for Alzarri to come out after that kind of news and bowl the way he bowled was exceptional. Credit to him. This one is for him and his family.’