ENGLAND NEED ROOT BACK TO HIS VERY BEST
ENGLAND’S tours to Sri Lanka and India could go a long way to determining whether they play a part in the first final of the World Test Championship this summer.
They also offer Joe Root the chance to re-establish himself as a member of world cricket’s Fab Four.
That was the name coined for the batting quartet of Root, Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson (below).
The latter claimed his place at the top of the ICC batting rankings last week, courtesy of his hundred in a Kiwi win over Pakistan at Mount Maunganui.
Williamson finished the year in pole position following the struggles of Steve Smith, who registered his first Test duck since 2016 as the Aussies were pummelled by India at the MCG.
Smith is currently on the ropes, having scored just 10 runs in two Tests.
And having demolished England’s bowlers in the 2019 Ashes, he averages just 26 in the seven Tests he has played since.
Kohli flew home after the first Test in Adelaide in order to attend the birth of his first child.
He has also endured a difficult 2020, having scored just 38 runs in four innings on India’s tour of New Zealand in February.
So with Kohli back home and Smith struggling for form, is the stage set for Root to reassert his right to a place alongside three undisputed batting greats?
Root sits ninth in the ICC rankings and last topped the list as far back as 2015.
He rose to the top after a dominant Ashes series that saw him score two hundreds and two fifties as England reclaimed the urn with a 3-2 series win.
Root was appointed captain in February 2017 and has enjoyed mixed fortunes with the bat ever since despite maintaining a Test average of almost 48 and remaining one of England’s most consistent performers.
Root’s marathon knock of 226 against New Zealand at Hamilton last November is his only triple figure score in 17 Tests.
His tally of 17 hundreds from 97 Tests pales in comparison to the figures boasted by Kohli, Smith and Williamson.
The latter’s hundred against Pakistan was the 23rd of his Test career.
Smith has scored 26 in just 75 matches.
Kohli beats that figure by one, with the India captain’s hundreds coming from 87 Tests.
A consistent frustration for England fans has been Root’s inability to turn starts and attractive fifties into something more substantial.
He currently has 49 Test fifties to his name — more than double the combined total of halfcenturies scored by Kohli and Smith.
Williamson has 32. If Root had converted just a small number of those into three figures, then his place among the Fab Four would be assured.
He would also be talked about as a true English great. As it is, the pressure is on him to deliver more
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