Root tunes in for some Ashes inspiration from Australia

ENGLAND Test captain Joe Root says watching the documentary series about the Australia team has helped motivate him for next winter’s Ashes.

‘The Test’ features footage from inside the dressing room and ends with Australia retaining the Ashes in England last summer.

Root, 29, said: “It’s been a good motivator to get back and train, use it as a way of incentivising myself.”

The Ashes in Australia are due to start in November 2021.

England’s two-Test tour of Sri Lanka in March was called off after the first warm-up game and there will be no cricket in the UK until at least 28 May because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Root, whose side drew last summer’s Ashes 2-2, said of the documentary: “I resisted watching that for a good while.

“I’ve started watching the first few now. A lot of the things we do in Test cricket revolve around planning for the Ashes down under. It goes without saying the Test championship is very important and every game carries a huge amount of weight, with points collected trying to get into that final, but a lot of what we’re doing is about building for that one series in Australia.

“We have around 17 to 20 games until we go down there, if all our Tests between now and then are played.

“We have to use every single opportunity to build the team up to be absolutely ready for what those conditions throw at us, what Australia throws at us, on the field and off. We will really use this time to ready ourselves to do something special down there.”

England are due to play home Test series against West Indies and Pakistan this summer before touring India in the winter.

Asked if England could reschedule their tour of Sri Lanka at the end of this year, Root said it would be “very difficult to work out” but England must be “very adaptable and openminded”.