Root never satisfied unless he goes ‘big’
Charlie Reynolds catches up with Joe Root as the number four batsman argues that, despite his form, he should be making more big scores for his country
Given his meteoric rise, it seems almost strange to think that this time two years ago Joe Root was far from being one of the first names on the England team sheet. In fact, having been dropped during England’s Ashes debacle the winter before, the young Yorkshireman had more than his fair share of doubters.
Now he stands as the number two ranked Test batsman in the world – as well as 10th and 4th in ODIs and T20s respectively – England’s captain-elect and the man many feel could become his country’s greatest batsman across all formats.
In those two years, Root has scored 2,531 Test runs at an average of 66.60, more than any other batsmen in world cricket, but now back where it all began – at Lord’s facing Sri Lanka – he is quick to point out the importance of that first knock back in the side, his career-best, undefeated, double century.
“You want to make sure you cement your place back in the side and you start the summer as you mean to go on,” said Root two days out from England’s third Test at Lord’s. “I almost had a point to prove not just to everyone else, but also to myself to show that I can play at this level.
“So it was very pleasing in that respect and anytime you get runs here it’s special and to make it a big one was very special, the icing on the cake. If I had got two 0s, you don’t know how the rest of the summer is going to unfold and I think I had quite a successful one that year, so it gave me a lot of confidence moving forward.”
Perhaps guilty of using a bit of Yorkshire understatement, ‘quite successful’ is somewhat underselling Root’s achievements in the summer following that 200 not out at Lord’s – after all he went on to make two more unbeaten centuries, racking up 514 runs at an average of 103.60 in the series against India.
In other formats too, Root has been the main man for England, collecting a clean sweep of awards as England’s Test, limited-overs and supporters’ player of the year in May, and finishing the recent World T20 as his country’s highest run scorer – the third highest overall in the tournament.
However for all the success, Root has recently appeared slightly plagued by a frustrating habit of failing to convert his fifties into centuries, with just one hundred in his last 18 innings.
It is something he said he was at loss to explain: “It’s hard to put your finger on it really, I don’t think I’ve changed my approach. I don’t think I ever really try and change the way I play when I’m on a certain score. I’d like to think it’s just a coincidence and it’s just all happened together.
“It’s definitely an area over the last couple of months that’s been very frustrating for me because I am playing well and I am contributing quite consistently and I feel like I am playing really well, but you don’t win games with 80s and 70s and starts, so you want to make sure you cash in when you get those opportunities.”
Solitary hundred aside, Root has indeed been playing well since the last English summer, averaging 53.78, but ever the self-motivator, the irritation in his voice is clear when asked how many more Test centuries he should have.
“A lot more. Probably double if you look at the amount of 50s. It’s just an annoyance that I want to put right and make sure for the rest of the summer if I do pass 50 and get in and feel set that I’m not throwing it away. If I’m ‘got out’ then fair play, but if it’s anything I can do about it then it’s a big score.”
While it has been the summer that Alastair Cook brought up his 10,000th Test run, something Root described reverentially as “a hell of a lot of runs” and then more cheekily as “a lot of tucks off the hip for Cooky”, for the 25-year-old the focus is on the present rather than long-term milestones.
“Yeah there are dreams down the line,” said Root. “You want to score millions of runs or thousands of runs for England, but if you don’t do it here and now then what’s the point in looking down the line. More importantly I want to get big runs in these games and then take that forward into the Pakistan series.
“For me it’s about addressing the opposition you’re up against, the conditions, the situation in the game and doing everything you can to survive in that arena.”
It is a mantra that has served him well in recent times, and helped create a fascinating three-way tussle for top spot in the Test batting rankings along with Steve Smith and Kane Williamson. One which, given the similarity in age between the three men, looks set to run and run.
It is a contest which Root will have at least one eye on, studying his opponents auto-didactically in his constant quest for self-improvement.
He added: “Always as a kid growing up, you look at the best players in the world and you say they're the best for a reason, there’s obviously something that they're doing that’s putting them apart from everyone else.
“It’d be silly not to look at the way they play and try and develop my game. If you can take any little nugget and add it to what you’ve got then hopefully you can benefit from it.”
Ultimately though if Root continues in a similar vein to the run that began at Lord’s two summers ago, then you feel it is batsmen round the world who might be learning a thing or two from him. Not to mention the number of youngsters growing up who are inspired to look at his game and hope to emulate his feats for England and at the end of the day, no cricketer could really ask for much more than that.
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