England rooted in high hope for Ashes

JOE Root believes England has the capacity to do “something special” by retaining the Ashes in Australia, after it wrapped up a 2-1 Test series victory against West Indies at Lord’s on Saturday.

A nine-wicket win inside three days meant England had won both of Root’s first two series as captain following a preceding 3-1 home triumph over South Africa.

Saturday’s success was effectively sealed by James Anderson taking his Test-best figures after all-rounder Ben Stokes starred with both ball and bat.

Having become the first Englishman and only sixth bowler to reach the milestone of 500 Test wickets on Friday, Anderson went on to record innings figures of 7/42 in a West Indies total of 177 all out.

That left England requiring a mere 107 to win, with an unbroken partnership of 72 between Mark Stoneman and Tom Westley completing a comprehensive victory.

This was England’s last Test match before it begins the defence of the Ashes in Brisbane in November.

A series win in Australia would see star batsman Root join a select group of postWorld War II England cap- tains – Len Hutton, Ray Illingworth, Mike Brearley, Mike Gatting and Andrew Strauss – to have led a side to Ashes glory Down Under.

“It has been great. We’ve played some really good stuff this summer,” Root said.

But England suffered second Test defeats in both the South Africa and West Indies series.

“There were two difficult weeks, but what is most pleasing is the resilience and character to come back from both of those with two extra-strong performances,” Root said.

“That is great to see for what is going to be a very challenging winter.”

But doubts remain over whether opener Stoneman, No.3 Westley and No.5 Dawid Malan are the right men to fill their respective spots in a top order where the only nailed-on places belong to Alastair Cook and Root himself.

“Plenty of challenges lie ahead, but with those challenges come great opportunities,” Root said.

“We should not be afraid of going over there [to Australia], performing at our best and [trying to] do something special.

“We have all the attributes to go down there and put in a strong performance.”