Ashes nightmare Down Under nearly ended my England career

JOE ROOT thought his Test career was over after he was dropped during England’s last Ashes tour in Australia. The 25-year-old England star, ranked second in the world behind Australia’s Steve Smith, paid the price for his side’s disastrous tour when he was dropped for the final Test in Sydney in 2014, despite averaging more in the series than team-mates Alastair Cook and Ian Bell. Just over two years later, Root has established himself as England’s leading batsman and believes his axing made him the player he is today.

‘You do think: “Will I ever play for England again?”,’ he said. ‘It’s only natural. It would be wrong to think otherwise. But it was then about, “What do I need to do to get back into this team?”. I needed to understand the areas to work on. I didn’t want to just survive in international cricket but wanted to thrive in it. If you strive to be one of the best players in the world and have a bad day, you’re still doing better than someone just trying to survive.’

Root’s biggest problem has been a failure to capitalise on a succession of assured starts but he overcame the problem in spectacular fashion last week with a double hundred at Old Trafford following a tough talk with batting coach

Mark years ago, conversations withYorkshire batting coachKevin Sharpe and mentor Michael Vaughan had a similarly galvanising effect. He said: ‘They told me to remember what the best parts of my game were. Look at me of the best players in som the world, they don’t play every shot.’