Joe Root has insisted it’s “disrespectful” to accuse Pakistan of showing “no fight” with the tourists on the brink of suffering a Test series whitewash by his England side.
England head into the third Test at Edgbaston starting Wednesday with an unbeatable 2-0 up in a three-match series after mammoth wins at Headingley and Lord’s.
Last week, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) took the extraordinary step of sending seven players home after the second Test and sacking Test coach Sarfaraz Ahmed, with white-ball boss Mike Hesson replacing him.
Seven players have been added to the Pakistan squad, five of whom have yet to make their Test debuts ahead of the series finale in Birmingham.
Root, during his pre-match press conference at Edgbaston on Tuesday, was asked what it was like to face opponents offering “no fight”, with Pakistan yet to make 200 in four innings so far this series against a revamped England pace quartet of Ollie Robinson, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson.
England captain Root took issue with the question, saying it was “disrespectful” to both sides.
“Absolutely we have found [Pakistan] a challenge,” Root said, even though England thrashed Pakistan by an innings and 103 runs at Headingley, before inflicting a 194-run defeat upon the tourists at Lord’s.
“I think that’s a bit disrespectful to both Pakistan as a team and to us as a team,” added Root, in his second spell as full-time England skipper following the shock international retirement of Ben Stokes.
“I don’t think we’ve allowed them to get into games because of how well we’ve played as well and how quickly we’ve read the situations and the surfaces that we’ve had.
“I think it’s very easy to say one team is excellent and one team is poor. Normally it’s somewhere in the middle.”
“If one team has been outstanding then the other team can’t have been poor and vice-versa. I think it’s important to live in that middle area somewhere and understand that that’s not how it is.
“Regardless of what’s happened over the last two games, this week it’s a completely different proposition for us.
“There’s a very talented group of players in that dressing room and you’ve got to be ready for it, so we’ll make sure that we are.”
