England’s star player Joe Root has reflected on team's poor World Cup show blaming the rising pollution levels in India and Mumbai, in particular for their four losses. Mumbai’s air quality dipped recently, where several residents complained about breathing issues and in fact, the city recorded a worse air quality than Delhi a few days ago. Root remarked that it felt like eating air and several English players are having trouble playing in this pollution.
” I’ve obviously played in hotter conditions and more humid conditions but not anything like this before. It just felt like you couldn’t get your breath. It felt like eating the air. It was unique. Klaasen was struggling. Adil Rashid for gasping for air while he was walking back to his run-up.”I do not know if it was poor air quality, but it felt like quite a hazy day,” remarked Root. Notably, Mumbai’s AQI was around 500, 10 times more than London’s.
Jos Buttler's men will aim to put the losses aside when they take on a struggling Sri Lanka in their fifth game of the group stage. The Lankans did return to winning ways with a strong victory over Netherlands last week, but injury issues have plagued the side with Matheesha Pathirana being the latest to be ruled out of the tournament. Angelo Mathews – the veteran all-rounder – was flown in from Sri Lanka to replace Pathirana.
