Adelaide: Joe Root said he hoped to “contribute heavily” with the bat as England seek to bounce back in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide, where he played as a teenager and trained under Australia coach Darren Lehmann.

Root scored 15 and 51 as holders England crashed to a 10-wicket defeat in Brisbane, stacking the odds of victory against them in the five-Test series.

The tourists head into the day-night game knowing that after losing the first Test, England have been beaten in every Ashes series in Australia since 1954-1955.

Adelaide has special resonance for Root, the 26-year-old Yorkshireman, who spent formative time as a cricketer in the South Australia city.

Much depends on Root scoring runs to bring home the Ashes urn, and he said it would be his greatest achievement to lead England to a series victory.

“More than anything I am desperate to win this series, as a batter I want to contribute heavily in this series,” said Root, who lies third in the Test batting rankings.

“Personally, this would be the biggest achievement of my career so far.”

If England win the series, Root will join illustrious post-World War II England skippers Len Hutton, Ray Illingworth, Mike Brearley, Mike Gatting and Andrew Strauss in leading a side to Ashes glory in Australia.

Root comes full circle in Adelaide, where he nurtured his game as a teenager. He spent five months in the city when 19 playing at the Prospect club.

Fiery build-up

Steve Smith returned fire on Friday after a taunt by James Anderson that Australia are bullies, calling the England paceman one of the biggest sledgers in cricket as insults flew ahead of the second Test.

Smith also denied laughing at England over the Jonny Bairstow headbutt incident in what has become a fiery build-up to the first day-night Ashes Test, at Adelaide Oval from Saturday.

Fast bowler Anderson called the Australian team “bullies” in a newspaper column as the tourists fume over the reaction to the Bairstow controversy, following their 10-wicket defeat in Brisbane.

Anderson declared in his column: “A bully waits until they are in the ascendancy to pounce on people. That is what Australian teams do.”

Smith didn’t hold back when asked for his response to England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker.

“I think he’s one of the biggest sledgers in the game to be perfectly honest with you.”

Agence France-Presse