Root hits jackpot with all-round ace and bowling greats
ASK any Test captain to produce a wish list of the type of players they would like to have in their team and the answers are usually the same.
At the top is a world-class all-rounder. Someone who can balance the team and give them the scope to pick either an extra batsman or an extra bowler.
Next comes a brilliant bowler. Captains of England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies and South Africa are likely to ask for a fast bowler.
Skippers of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh are more likely to want a sensational spinner for obvious reasons.
And then comes the centurymaking batsmen, because when it comes to Test cricket it is bowlers who win you matches and batsmen who decide by how many.
Mike Brearley had Sir Ian Botham. Michael Vaughan had Andrew Flintoff. Steve Waugh had Glenn McGrath AND Shane Warne.
Clive Lloyd had Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Colin Croft, not to mention those who stepped in from time to time.
These are some of the great captains and their great players, so when Joe Root arrives at Old Trafford ready to try to add his name to the list of English Ashes-winning captains he should realise he has hit the jackpot.
In James Anderson and Stuart Broad he will have England’s two greatest fast bowlers to open the attack, boasting the small matter of 1033 Test scalps between them.
A small turn of the head and he will spot Jofra Archer, a bona fide fast-bowling star who is the quickest England have had and who collected his first five-wicket haul in his second Test.
And then by his right-hand side will be vice captain and world-class all-rounder Ben Stokes, who is picking up man-of-the-match gongs as often as most people pick up their takeaways.
As a family friend and protege of Vaughan, Root knows the full value an all-rounder like Stokes or Flintoff can bring to a team, and he missed that throughout the 2017/18 Ashes.
England were routed 4-0 as Stokes looked on unable to help his skipper and both men knew the time would come when he could make amends.
As Root said before the start of this series: “To have someone like Ben by your side does fill me with a huge amount of confidence.
“Ben offers with all three departments – he bowls, he bats and he is one of the best fielders. And he drags people with him as a natural leader on the field and in the dressing room. We are lucky to have him.”
Perhaps the best captains are actually the luckiest captains after all. Lucky to have players who can win them enough matches to make history.
Brearley had Botham in 1981 and so did Mike Gatting in 1986/87, when England won a rare Ashes series Down Under.
Root has both luck and the players on his side to become an Ashes-winning skipper in his own right. He has two matches to grab his chance.