Hayter: Root has proved he has stomach for the fight
Chris Stocks looks at the progression of the new England captain’s career and finds out exactly what Joe Root will bring to the role
If there’s one moment where Joe Root’s transformation from promising young batsman to England’s new Test captain started, it was in Sydney on January 3, 2014. That was when a 23-year-old Root was told by Alastair Cook, the man he succeeded as captain this week, he was not playing in the fifth and final Ashes Test.
The pain of that news proved a tipping point in Root’s career. He scored a double century in his first innings back in the side against Sri Lanka at Lord’s the following summer. He was then named one of Wisden’s five Cricketers of the Year for 2014. He has not looked back since and, as he sat fielding questions at Headingley on Wednesday in his first public outing in his new role, the transformation was complete.
Whether Root goes on to become a successful England captain is up to him. But everything that has happened in his career so far suggests he will rise to the challenge.
Root, reflecting on that careerchanging moment at the Sydney Cricket Ground just over three years ago, said: “I went back to the changing room and Cooky sat me down and said, ‘It’s a tough call but you are not going to play in this game’.
“I can’t remember what I did for the next hour. I was gone. I was an empty vessel for an hour.
“But then I was absolutely spewing. I was so angry and gutted because I had not scored runs, not because I thought I deserved to play.
“In my first Test back against Sri Lanka at Lord’s, I sat there waiting to bat and all I could think about was reliving Cooky telling me I was not playing in Sydney. I was using it as an inner motivation. I did not want that happening again.”
It proved the kick up the backside Root needed. That Ashes series, which ended in a 5-0 whitewash for England, proved to be a car crash, but when the team return to Australia in late October to begin preparations for their defence of the Ashes they will be led by Root.
That perhaps will be the ultimate vindication of the hard work he has put in over the past three years or so to become his side’s best batsman and, in the wider scheme of things, one who only Virat Kohli, Australia captain Steve Smith and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson can be compared to.
All three have been handed the captaincies of their respective countries. Now Root joins them and hopes the added responsibility can propel his form to the heights achieved by those three peers.
“I like to think that, in the past, the more responsibility I’ve been given I’ve stepped up to that and taken it in my stride,” said Root. “Looking around the world, other guys in a similar position to me have taken similar responsibility and taken their game to the next level, so I’d like to think if I go about it the right way I’ll be able to do the same thing.”