Nasser Hussain has told Joe Root he is 'a lucky boy' to have kept the England captaincy after making 'a lot of mistakes' during the Ashes.
Hussain was critical of Root's tactics and team selection during the series, but the 31-year-old has been backed to continue as captain by England's interim Managing Director of Men's cricket Sir Andrew Strauss.
"Having spoken to Joe it is absolutely clear the extent of his commitment to taking this side forward – he has incredible motivation and energy to do that," Strauss said.
"I will give him my full support and make sure he has the right structure around him to take pressure off him and make sure he can do his job properly."
However, Hussain feels Root is fortunate to still be in the job, pointing out that Root himself had said the Ashes would "define my captaincy".
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: "Big mistakes were made in selection, reading of pitches, tosses, [no] Lions games in between, not getting your key players or players not in the side some time in the middle.
"It's difficult to have the same management team go to the Caribbean when so many errors were made.
"I think he's a lucky boy. Because those decisions that were made, whether it be the toss at Brisbane, leaving out Broad and Anderson on a green top, not playing Broad on both pitches that did a bit, not playing Leach or Wood in Adelaide or bowling Stokes into the ground having bowled 17 overs in first-class cricket all summer in that enforcer role.
"That role takes more out of the body than anything else. You've got Wood at 140kmp that can do that role.
"Joe made some mistakes on that trip - a lot of mistakes. He said his captaincy would be defined by the Ashes trip and it was defined, they lost 4-0.
"Having seen Giles go, someone he's worked with, having seen Silverwood go, someone he's worked with and made decisions with I personally would feel very uncomfortable in that way."
