Joe Root and Usman Khawaja
NEW DELHI: England Test captain Joe Root has chosen not to comment on the fresh allegations surrounding Australia’s 2018 ball-tampering scandal, popularly known as ‘Sandpapergate’.
Speaking ahead of England’s three-match ODI series against Australia, Root said he did not know what had happened inside the Australian dressing room and wanted to concentrate on the matches ahead.
My focus is with this team right now and what we’ve got coming up,” Root said. When asked whether he had experienced similar practices in cricket, Root said, “I can only speak from my own experiences and that’s not how I feel, no. I’ll sort of just let the powers of people do their thing,” he said.
“I wasn’t in that [Australia] dressing room, I don’t know what went on. I don’t want to speculate. He added that England had no clear information about the latest claims and wanted to focus on the ODI series. Khawaja claimed that ball-tampering was not limited to Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, suggesting that the wider Australian team, including support staff, knew about the practice. Australian batter Peter Handscomb, who was part of the squad during the Cape Town Test, also declined to discuss Khawaja’s claims. “Look, I appreciate you have to ask these questions. Handscomb added that players must learn to move forward despite off-field controversies and outside discussions.
I’ve had a nice day today, and it’s not really something that I want to comment on right now.