How Root earned his Test coronation in the cauldron of that T20 calamity
It was a good opening day for the new captain says Peter Hayter, but it gets tougher from here on
Not that he seemed to have much doubt beforehand but Andrew Strauss has nominated Joe Root’s innings in last year’s losing World T20 final as the evidence he needed to know for sure that the Yorkshireman had what it took to succeed Alastair Cook as England’s next Test captain.
Speaking in the players’ dining room at Headingley on the day Root was unveiled as their 80th skipper, the director of England cricket had been asked why, when the 79th rang to tell him enough was enough, he was so sure whom to call next.
And it turns out that, while the rest of the nation took another image from that April night at Eden Gardens, that of Ben Stokes on his knees after Carlos Brathwaite had hit the first four balls of the final over for six to win the game for West Indies, Strauss had also filed away Root’s 36-ball 54, with which he rebuilt the innings from 8-2 and 23-3 to what should have been a trophy-winning 155-9, for future reference.
For it showed him just how tough Root could be when the going got tough and tough does not come much tougher than what England and their new leader Root will face in the next 12 months in a Test programme schedule that begins with series against South Africa and West Indies and culminates, in case anyone wants reminding, with the mission to retain the Ashes Down Under this winter and to wipe out memories of their dire 5-0 thrashing there last time around.
“I just think what is interesting with all players is how they handle highpressure situations,” explained Strauss. “For me, I personally think one of the best innings Joe has played – and I know it’s not relevant in this context because it wasn’t in Test cricket – was the final of the World T20 and how well he was able to keep control of himself in a highly-pressurised situation.
“That’s what you need from a captain – first day of an Ashes series, can you lead in the right way?
“I think Joe’s got that in abundance – that stomach for the fight and that ability to soak up pressure and come out fighting.”
But if that was the biggest single thing, it was not the only thing he saw during Root’s apprenticeship to persuade him to back him for the best and hardest job in British sport.
“There is only so much you can do as vice-captain,” explained Strauss, “and only so much I can see if I’m not in that dressing room all the time.
“But all the comments I got back were around, effectively, what a role model he is for everyone else.
“That’s partly due to what he’s done on the pitch, but (also) the way he carries himself.
“He has got that really good mix of being relatively light-hearted, not too serious but with a real spine and solidity to him – and ability to stand up and fight for either himself or his team.
“Having played that vice-captain role for a couple of years, he was in a strong position.
“What really impressed me in our conversations with Joe was just how clear he was in his mind about how the England team should operate going forward – so style of play, very
strong thoughts about where we needed to improve, and some really developed thinking around the dressing room itself.”
Root himself, was giving away no detail on that front, save from wanting to be “a captain that wins, is tough to play against” and hoping “we’ll play cricket that is enjoyable to watch”.
As for the inevitable question of whether he was going to hang up his red nose, comedy trousers and snipping scissors, or rather “become more statesmanlike”, Root insisted: “There are funnier guys in the dressing room than me. I just want to be very natural, instinctive and find something that naturally works.”
For clues as to who and what he may be, it may be worth imagining just what advice he will be given by some former England captains from whom he is due to take soundings.
Strauss may not have considered it appropriate at this stage to offer too much, except, as his boss, to underline he’d better win more than he loses and smile when he is doing both.
Cook will urge him to make sure he leans on trusted friends inside and outside the camp with whom he can share the load when it gets too heavy.
Michael Vaughan has already told him not to be too funky.
Nasser Hussain will want to make sure he has the steel he claims he has and is able to burn the paint from dressing room walls if necessary.
Mike Atherton will probably reinforce his own default position of keeping the media at arm’s length (not all of them, of course).
Graham Gooch will remind him that the absolute priority is to keep his own game in order.
And of all the photographs for which Root dutifully posed the other day, two in particular offered insights into the characteristics upon which he may base his approach to captaincy.
First, following the general scrum on the green, green grass of his Yorkshire home, Root obliged Aussie snapper Phil Brown in picking up the 20p coin he had placed on the spot they wanted him to stand on, then took the bait in flicking the coin upwards from his right hand, as if spinning on the morning of his first Test in charge, and allowing the playful @dudleyplatypus to tweet
Joe’s got that in abundance – that stomach for the fight and that ability to soak up pressure and come out fighting Andrew Strauss
“Photocall in Leeds with the new England test captain ... turns out @root66 is a right tosser! (that is, uses his right hand to toss a coin)”.
Root knew he’d been kippered but didn’t bat an eyelid.
The second and rather more respectable event was a shot of Root posing next to a portrait of Lord Hawke, the Yorkshire club’s first England captain.
“Do you know much about him?” I asked Root, as he prepared to leave, of the Eton-educated autocrat who turned a boozy rabble into a team that won the Championship eight times from 1883 to 1910, a model county side “well-disciplined, well-drilled and efficient”.
“His theory of captaincy was attack,” I told him, having just read it on the tribute to Hawke in the Yorkshire museum, written by Sir Pelham Warner, “a cricket ball existed to be hit and hit hard.” “Yes,” he said, “and he was the man who came up with the white rose design for the club emblem – 11 petals, one for every member of the team.” When the day was finally done, Strauss took the trouble to gauge what we had made of Root’s performance. “What did you think, lads?” he asked. “Happy with what you heard?” Strauss is too smart a cookie to ask such a question without already knowing the answer. Granted it had hardly been a “high-pressure situation”. But, from first to last, Root handled it expertly.