Michael Atherton calls on Joe Root, Chris Silverwood and Ashley Giles to go

Former England opener Atherton believes wholesale changes are needed in the international Test side if its fortunes are to improve

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Root accepts England need wholesale changes after Ashes defeat

Mike Atherton has called for England ‘s managing director, head coach and captain to all be removed from their posts as a result of the team’s terrible performances Down Under.

England lost the latest Ashes series to Australia 4-0, and were only spared a whitewash by rain delays which helped them to force a draw in Sydney.

The result of the series has highlighted a serious need for changes in the domestic game, with skipper Joe Root himself stating that players are not adequately prepared for tours on foreign soil.

Atherton, who holds the record for the number of Test matches played as England captain, agrees that changes need to be made in county cricket.

But more pressing than that, he says, is the need to clean house and install fresh faces in key roles in the international setup.

“Any notion that there should be no overhaul to the make-up and management of the England cricket team — as you are, Ashley Giles, Chris Silverwood and Joe Root according to some — has been demolished by the nature of this latest defeat in the Ashes,” he wrote in his column for The Times.

“Another utterly abject, humiliating collapse, devoid of any technical competence or fighting spirit, saw the series surrendered by a frightening margin in Hobart.

“This hammering, on the back of a desperate year for the Test team, should signal the need for some change. Forget structural change in English domestic cricket for a moment. There is time for that.

“But a cohort of English first-class cricketers cannot be held accountable for the mistakes made on this tour, for mistakes in selection and strategy, and the way there has been such a meek surrender.

“Root is an outstanding man, brilliant batsman and a captain who has run his race. Beforehand, he said this tour would define his captaincy and here we are.

“There is no way, surely, that Silverwood can continue as coach and head selector after this, and no way that Giles should continue, either, given the decisions he has made.

“The manner of defeat suggested a lack of respect for those in charge. It was embarrassing.”

The opinion that Silverwood should be replaced as head coach and selector is one shared by many fans and pundits alike who believe he has too much power within the England setup.

Root’s future is more complicated, though, as while he has made some high-profile errors, he led by example at times during the Ashes and arguably remains the side’s best Test batter.

And the man himself wants to continue in the role if he is given the chance.

“I believe that I am the right man to take this team forward,” he said after the conclusion of the fifth Test in Hobart.

“If that decision is taken out of my hands, so be it. I have an appetite to carry on and turn things around.”