The Ashes: Joe Root calls on England to prove their worth

The captain is urging wiser ‘shot’ selection on and off the pitch after the drink-related issues that are in danger of terminally derailing England’s Ashes campaign.

They had barely arrived back in Perth for this week’s must-win third Test, 2-0 down with three to play and the urn on the line, when yet another slice of late-night controversy was served up by Ben Duckett.

The Lions batsman was revisiting the same bar in which Jonny Bairstow inadvertently got the tour off on the wrong foot by delivering a playful ‘headbutt’ rather than handshake on first meeting with Australia opener Cameron Bancroft.

Duckett’s antics were a variation on a theme when he chose to pour a drink over the head of England’s all-time leading wicket-taker James Anderson, earning himself a maximum fine and final written warning.

Root’s task is to ensure his team set all that aside – as well as the continued absence of match-winner Ben Stokes, still waiting to hear if he will be charged with actual bodily harm after a fracas outside a Bristol nightclub in September.

“It’s been frustrating ... very frustrating,” said Yorkshireman Root. “In the obvious circumstances and position we’re in, guys have made silly mistakes that, of course, are going to get blown out of proportion.

“(But) we’ve probably got one of the biggest games of our lives coming up on Thursday ... (and) we have to get it right.”

If they do, Root still believes in an improbable series fightback.

“It’s time to stand up,” he added. “These are the games that, when you get them right, really hit home with people.

“That’s what people want to see – in the face of adversity, people stand up and really put in those big performances and prove why they have been selected to play for England. I understand that a few people feel let down.

“We still believe we can win the series, but we now need to prove that to everyone else.”

Despite his frustrations, Root has no hesitation in providing a collective character witness.

“They’re good blokes, they’re good people,” he said. “But unfortunately incidents like that let us down and lead people to believe otherwise.”

He does not absolve Anderson – one of several senior players out drinking last Thursday – but spells out he too has an opportunity to put it all behind him.

Asked if the 35-year-old seamer should perhaps be setting a better example, Root said: “Yes, maybe a little bit.

“His focus now has to be about leading that bowling attack and doing the right things on the field.”

As for his own experience, Root admits he was not entirely prepared for what has transpired here.

“I knew it would be challenging, and I knew there would be stuff around the cricket – but not to this extent,” he said. “It’s simple really. The majority of it has been done right for the majority of the time by the majority of the group.”

He insists his team have the moral fibre and cricketing talent to turn the tour around.

“I’m sure those guys are disappointed, as am I,” he continued. “But one thing I’m really proud of, and one of this group’s big strengths, is we do look after each other. That’s proof that we are good blokes and good human beings.

“We care about each other. The lads have done some stupid stuff, but we are all in this together and we are only going to win and get back into this series if we stick together.”

Root’s predecessor as captain, Alastair Cook, believes England must wise up to a changed world if they are to regain the respect of a nation.

Cook will become the first Englishman to reach 150 Test caps when he tries to help the troubled Ashes tourists turn their series around in Perth this week.

As their 32-year-old national-record runscorer seeks to arrest his worrying dip in form, he concedes the bar room backdrop to England’s two defeats so far owes its genesis to Stokes’s arrest in September.

Cook knows that incident drastically altered public perception.

“The world obviously changed for the England cricket team in September,” said Cook. “Those last two incidents (involving Bairstow and Duckett) have proven there is very little margin for error when you’ve had a beer.

“We’ve just got to smarten up, and we’ve got to do it quickly – because there’s too much at stake.”

The former captain knows what it is like to play to an unappreciative audience, having won the Ashes in 2013 only to discover most people were disengaged.

“We won an Ashes series 3-0, but the public weren’t happy,” he added. “There was a disconnect between the players and the public, and in the last four years we’ve made a massive effort to get that connection back. The last couple of months have damaged that.”

It will of course be a special moment when he wins his landmark cap on Thursday.

“Not many people play 150 Test matches– so to do that, and at the top of the order, I’m quite proud,” said Cook.