With the Ashes still a couple of months away, the off-field chatter between former players of both countries have started. Initiated by Australia’s David warner who said Joe Root ‘has to take the surfboard off his front leg’ referring to Root’s vulnerability to inswingers that often trap him lbw. He was swiftly countered by Stuart Broad took to X to clarify that Root did not possess a glaring weakness against Josh Hazlewood, who Warner had tipped to be Root’s kryptonite.
Moeen Ali also pipped in with his opinion on Warner’s remarks, calling him a clown. ‘He’s just being Warner. He’s a bit of a clown to be honest with you. He’s trying to, obviously, get into Rooty’s head, which he won’t. He’s not up for the whole banter thing. It’s just Warner, isn’t it?’ Ali said on the Beard Before Wicket podcast.
He also said that Root won’t get affected by these sledges and will still score a boatload of runs.
“But Rooty… the guy has scored so many runs now, he’s been through the whole thing and it won’t effect him. India tried it and it just didn’t work, clearly didn’t work, because he scored loads of runs. But yeah, there’s some players you can do that to and others that you can’t,” he said.
Warner, meanwhile, recently revealed that the reigning Ashes champs aimed for Root around his pads in the past. “That’s where we always targeted him.”
“The way that he brings down his bat playing on Australian wickets, it can bring him undone and I’ve seen it in the past,” Warner said of Root.
“I think he will have nightmares before he gets over there about Josh Hazlewood. A bit like me and Broady.
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“Joe is a hell of a cricket player, look at the runs he has scored, the second leading run-scorer in the world. But I’m sure he’d like to score a hundred in Australia. It’s one that has eluded him. I think that will be on his mind, so we will have to wait and see.”
