England captain admits his own poor form has not helpedNew Zealand’s Tom Latham basks in ‘huge achievement’Joe Root has backed the players whose failures with the bat ushered
England towards a crushing Test defeat against
New Zealand at Edgbaston, insisting that he must shoulder much of the blame for their disappointing performances and that as a group they have the potential to excel in forthcoming Test series against
India and the Ashes in Australia.
A series of collective failures, particularly in their second innings – England’s average score in five completed second innings this year is 136 – as well as the travails of several individual batsmen, has led to widespread criticism of the group assembled for this series.