<\/p>
Test cricket in England needs \u201ca little bit of tender loving care\u201d but Joe Root is the right captain to lead the team forward, according to former international bowler Phil Tufnell.<\/p>\n
The iconic Test Match Special expert spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a> as he gears up to take a brand new Test Match Special Live show across the country alongside cult hero commentator Jonathan Agnew.<\/p>\n He believes that the red ball game is crying out for attention in the same way that limited overs formats have been cared for in recent years, a strategy that led to the ODI team winning the Cricket World Cup in 2019.<\/p>\n Tufnell said: \u201cThere are things to be done. The Test team and red ball cricket needs a little bit of TLC. I think it needs a little bit of a tweak with scheduling.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to get red ball cricket played in the summer months, not the beginning of April and in October with this great big glut of one-day cricket. You\u2019ve got to give the red ball guys a chance of playing in sunny conditions on good pitches.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who are above my pay level will be sitting down thinking about this but I don\u2019t think they need to get too carried away with it all. There are always these major overhauls but not many teams go Down Under and come back with a win. I can only remember two or three in the last 30 or 40 years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to maintain that Test match cricket is the pinnacle, for sure. In the white ball game, it was a disaster, then with Eoin Morgan they put that four-year plan in place to give it a little bit more emphasis and look what happened.<\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps the red ball game got slightly left behind in that. It just needs a little bit of tender loving care to balance it up a little bit but, you know, don\u2019t throw all the counties away! This happens every time [England lose].<\/p>\n \u201cJoe Root should continue to be captain, mainly because I don\u2019t know who else would do it. He\u2019s got huge respect in the game, ICC Player of the Year this year \u2013 what a wonderful player he is. But he does need a bit of help from his mates. The batting line-up needs to take a good look at themselves.\u201d<\/p> Tufnell stated \u201cin the cold light of day, we didn\u2019t perform\u201d Down Under as England were blown away 4-0 in a humiliating Ashes series in the 2021\/22 winter.<\/p>\n The 55-year-old has fired out a call to fringe players to take their chances in upcoming Test matches, including England in the West Indies 2022<\/a> starting this week.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cFor players coming through, now\u2019s the opportunity, isn\u2019t it? This is the time for someone to stick their hand up and break into the side, when things do go down.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know who but someone needs to stick their hand up in county cricket and demand to get playing and when they get the opportunity, seize it with both hands.<\/p>\n \u201cI think James Vince might come back and look to get back into the line-up. We know all about him. And there are some good youngsters knocking around there.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you get the opportunity, bloody take it. It\u2019s a ruthless game, in a funny sort of way. I don\u2019t think people have been doing that lately but spring is in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n Test Match Special Live runs from 9th April until 8th May across the UK. <\/strong>Tickets for the tour are on sale now and are available from fane.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for something else to watch, check out our TV Guide<\/a> or visit our Sport<\/a> hub for all the latest news.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, l<\/strong>isten to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a> with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/body><\/html>\n By Michael Potts Published: Monday, 07 March 2022 at 12:00 am Test cricket in England needs \u201ca little bit of tender loving care\u201d but Joe Root is the right captain to lead the team forward, according to former international bowler Phil Tufnell. The iconic Test Match Special expert spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com as he gears […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":11829,"template":"","categories":[7,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/england-test-cricket-needs-tender-loving-care-says-phil-tufnell.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/england-test-cricket-needs-tender-loving-care-says-phil-tufnell-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/england-test-cricket-needs-tender-loving-care-says-phil-tufnell-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/england-test-cricket-needs-tender-loving-care-says-phil-tufnell.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/england-test-cricket-needs-tender-loving-care-says-phil-tufnell.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/england-test-cricket-needs-tender-loving-care-says-phil-tufnell.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/england-test-cricket-needs-tender-loving-care-says-phil-tufnell.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Michael Potts Published: Monday, 07 March 2022 at 12:00 am Test cricket in England needs \u201ca little bit of tender loving care\u201d but Joe Root is the right captain to lead the team forward, according to former international bowler Phil Tufnell. The iconic Test Match Special expert spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com as he gears…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/11828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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