2nd Test: England head coach Silverwood warns batsman around Joe Root to ‘step up’

England head coach Chris Silverwood on Monday warned his insecure top three and said they needed to start contributing more to ease the pressure on skipper Joe Root.

The top-order has been a consistent problem for some time for England with Rory Burns, Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley under the spotlight after failing to register a score of 30 in two innings of the drawn first Test.

“Yeah, I think we do,” England coach Chris Silverwood said on Monday (August 9) when asked if there’s an over-reliance on Root.

“I mean Joe’s been phenomenal for the last six months really scoring runs for us. And what we need to do is make sure that the guys that are batting with him are coming to the party as well. So that’s one thing which we’re talking about in the dressing room constantly. And it’s something that I’ve spoken to the batting coaches as well.

“Encourage conversations between the players and the coaches to try and find a solution for this to try and help them get better. It’s not through lack of effort. It’s not a lack of hard work, it’s just a case of we have to try and find a formula that works. That’s a work in progress at the moment,” he added.

Haseeb Hameed is waiting in the wings for a chance, almost five years since a broken finger cut short an eye-catching start to his England career in India.

“I’m confident he’s as ready as he could be,” added Silverwood.

“He put his best foot forward in Durham when he scored that hundred and what he did an early season in the championship shows there’s a lot of class there as well.

“I think he is making a very strong case and at some point, we may make a decision and give him an opportunity.”

The second Test of the five-match series gets underway on Thursday at Lord’s.