Joe Root said that while England have improved significantly, there still remains room for improvement. (Source: Reuters)
England may have bowed out of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 after a crushing defeat to Pakistan in the semi-final but batsman Joe Root believes that the side has made “huge strides” in limited overs cricket. The aggressive batting that has come to become a feature of England in ODI and T20I cricket over the past few months have been in stark contrast to the almost condescending approach they had to the shorter formats of the game earlier.
“We know we’re not the finished article. But we have made huge strides and we’ve got to continue to work out ways to get on the right side of these scenarios when things aren’t favourable to us,” said Root, who is captain of England’s Test setup. England made significant changes in their approach to limited overs cricket after they were dumped out of the 2015 ICC World Cup in the group stage itself.
“This was a golden chance to win a tournament at home, and I think all we can do now is keep looking towards that World Cup and use this as a really good platform,” he said about England’s campaign in the 2017 Champions Trophy. England were favourites to progress against Pakistan in the semi-final. But Pakistan came out all guns blazing and took out the England batting line-up, consisting the likes of Root, Eoin Morgan, Alex Hales and Ben Stokes, for a total of 211. Pakistan overtook the total in just over 37 overs with eight wickets in hand.
