England captain Joe Root has backed his decision of batting first in the 1st Test at Gabba and also opened up on what went for them in this Test. Many critics have slammed Root for batting first but the England skipper feels his decision was not wrong. England was bowled for 147 in the 1st innings inside two sessions and they had to face their first loss of the Ashes series by 9 wickets against Australia.

In the post-match presentation, he said – “The toss, I think it was the right decision, but when you’re 40 [29] for 4, it’s very difficult to get yourself back in the game from that position,” Root said after the nine-wicket defeat on Saturday (December 11). “We have to be better in that first innings and manage those conditions in that situation better moving forward and ultimately as well.”

He also added – “If anything, that [Leach’s poor numbers] probably falls on me for probably giving him too aggressive fields, too early – not letting him settle in and giving him a bit more of a chance early on. Jack’s a fine spinner. He’s shown over the 20-odd Test matches that he’s played what an instrumental part he can play within this team and I’m sure he’ll play a big part in this series moving forward”

Root has opened up on what went wrong for them and said – “It’s easy to look back in hindsight. One thing I will say is that we wanted variation in our attack. We wanted to be able to change the pace of the game and move through different gears throughout the innings. It’s easy to say in hindsight [that Anderson or Broad should have played]. One thing I will say is that we wanted variation in our attack. We wanted to be able to change the pace of the game and move through different gears throughout the innings. I thought our seamers were brilliant, Woody [Mark Wood] in particular, Robbo [Ollie Robinson] as well, and [they were] backed up by the other guys“.

“We created a lot of chances but we’ve just got to take them. We want to be better in the field. If we did that the game could have looked very different: we could have been looking at – even with the way that we played this morning – we could have been 150 ahead and it’s a very different context of the game then.” – Joe Root said.