Root’s test en route to becoming the best
Alastair Cook was left awe-struckandjustthetiniestbit miffedtooatEdgbastonthisyear when batting against the West IndianattackalongsideJoeRoot, themanwhohadreplacedhimas Englandcaptain.“It’s fairly frustrating when you have a 22-run start and he beats you to a hundred by 20 balls,” sighed Cook. “Hemakes it look so easy. He is a genius and an unbelievable player to watch from the other end, a lesson to us all.”
When such a tribute comes from England’s record Test run scorer,whohailsRootasthebest batsman he has ever played alongside, then evidently we are talkingabouttherarestoftalents. Rootisstillonly26andhasbeena Testplayerforonlyfiveyearsbut hismasteryinthistriple-pronged era of Tests, ODIs and T20s has been such that he has scored 10,066 runs in all three forms of the game.
Despiteallthehyperboleabout him, could it be that the real measure of his greatness may only be starting now as he leads England’s Ashes defence?
For in his almost uninterrupted triumph of a CV one glaring failure stands out - his lack of success on Australian soil.
Nowonderthenthattherewas a sense of a man on a mission whenhesaidatLord’sbeforeflying out with his team: “I’m desperate to go out there and have a better tour than last time.”
Root has not forgotten how England were terrorised by
LONDON:
Mitchell Johnson in that 2013-14 Australian whitewash and how hewaseventuallydroppedforthe final Test in Sydney.
Yet,strangely,oneofthemore pleasingmemoriesofthatdispiriting tour for English observers was how Root kept smiling back at the growling Johnson while making a defiant 87 in Adelaide.
It demonstratedthespirit that goeswiththeskill.Earlierin2013, Root had famously got under David Warner’s skin to such a degree during a chance meeting in a Birmingham pub that Warner ended up being disciplined for punching him.
Theincident prompted Root’s then Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale to note memorably: “Joe’s definitely not a fighter. He couldn’t fight his way out of a paperbag.Helooksmorelikethe MilkyBarKidthanMikeTyson.”
The idea of the Milky Bar Kid gunning for Australia on his record-strewn road, however, should continue to exercise the minds of his hosts.