However, he has no problem with the likelihood of facing Mohammad Amir again, because he served the punishment handed down to him.
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While he nonetheless has runs in the bank, from the back-to-back wins at Headingley and Chester-le-Street, Compton badly needed a score on his home ground to re-establish his credentials.
Alastair Cook, England Test captain, wants players found guilty of match-fixing in the future to be banned for life.
“That record was set by an incredibly talented genius”.
“I don’t think any ill-feeling or negativity from the players will have carried through”.
“I just think that over the last few years it has become more and more in the public eye”.
In each of their five most recent series, England have lost the last Test. Batting coach Mark Ramprakash said earlier this week: “I hope lessons will have been learned because we have come unstuck in the last Test, most recently in South Africa”.
Cook (10,042 runs in 128 Tests) is, however, almost 6,000 runs short of retired star Tendulkar’s record aggregate of 15,921 runs from 200 Tests.
Root, who has two big hundreds at the historical venue knows how a hundred at Lord’s will help a player gain the confidence to kick-start his career.
The England and Wales Cricket Board supported his visa application and, speaking on Monday, the fast bowler Stuart Broad said he and his team-mates would hold no grudge, even if he could not guarantee that supporters will feel the same way. “If I’ve been got out, fair play, but I don’t want to throw it away”.
Amir is likely to open the bowling for Pakistan in the Lord’s Test next month – his first five-day game since 2010.
Although Root remains a delightful touch player – his innings in the World T20 against South Africa where his 83 off 44 balls marshalled England’s huge chase was a stand-out example – his boundary-hitting has been one of the areas that has developed most significantly since the early days of his global career when a slight, scrawny 21-year-old made 73 off 229 balls against India in Nagpur.
But the loss of four wickets for 28 runs either side of lunch brought a different complexion – and when Cook went for 85, ending a stand of 80 with Jonny Bairstow, a teatime 165 for five was well short of initial expectations.
Cook said: “He has served (his punishment), so I’m perfectly happy for him to come back and play”. Should be punished more severely, because you unclean the game.
Cook is rooting for the Middlesex man to succeed in familiar surroundings and and said: “He’s got the class to score the big score”.
Yet there appears a genuine will among the England team for the grandson of Denis to do well enough to survive even though captain Alastair Cook acknowledged the importance of a meaningful contribution from Compton here. He said he is looking forward to Amir Balls at Lord’s.
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“The quality of the ball is vital”.
