Root praises ‘phenomenal’ summer and identifies Test ‘blueprint’
Joe Root hailed a “phenomenal” summer and declared England’s victory at the Oval as the blueprint for their future Test cricket as they signed off with an important win over Australia.
England bade farewell to their coach Trevor Bayliss with a victory that ensured he remained unbeaten in home Test series over his fouryear tenure but planning for the future will begin quickly this week.
A total of 22 new central contracts will be announced on Friday (11 for Test, 11 for one-day cricket), then next week the squad for the New Zealand tour will be announced and Ashley Giles will step up his search for Bayliss’s replacement. Root reiterated he wants to stay on as Test captain and lead the side in Australia in 2021-22 and believes in Jofra Archer and Rory Burns England have unearthed two players to add to their central core of senior figures in the team.
Joe Denly will be handed a central contract this week. Burns will receive his first central contract and Jack Leach will be in line for a deal, too.
Archer and Stuart Broad will have to lead the attack again in New Zealand with England privately admitting they do not expect their leading wicket-taker, James Anderson, to be fit for the tour. Instead they hope he will be fully recovered from his calf strain in time for the South Africa series in December.
Sam Curran has leapfrogged Chris Woakes as the back-up allrounder behind Ben Stokes after a good performance at the Oval and there will be New Zealand call-ups for two out of Ollie Pope, Dominic Sibley and Zak Crawley. Pope is certain to go leaving Sibley and Crawley a week to battle it out.
For Root, this win was a massive boost to his captaincy. “I thought the performance this week was a lot closer to what we want in Test cricket,” he said.
“We now look like we are starting to get to grips with Test cricket after a long period of one-day cricket. We have an opportunity to push and do everything we can to prepare for that tour to Australia. I am planning to still be here.
“This is more of a blueprint about how we want to go about playing.”
A golden summer will be remembered for the World Cup final, Archer’s brutal duel with Steve Smith at Lord’s and Stokes’s Headingley showstopper. “Look at it, it has been phenomenal cricket,” said Root. “The World Cup was incredible for it to finish how it did and the games within it made for fantastic viewing. And it was backed up by such an evenly matched up Ashes series when the cricket was gripping.”