On the treadmill as Root looks to bounce back

For the best international cricketers, the setting on the treadmill does nothing except increase.

After the second test of this twomatch series, and their 23-hour flight home from New Zealand via Los Angeles, England’s test players are off to South Africa a week later.

Christmas at home at the end of a year in which they have toured West Indies, won the World Cup, shared the Ashes, and toured New Zealand? Not the slightest chance.

New Zealand’s players are treated a little more kindly — always given a full Indian Premier League window so they can cash in — but three days after this test series against England, they must fly to Perth, to play a day/ night pink-ball test at the new stadium without a practice game, thence to Melbourne for the Boxing Day test, and on to Sydney for New Year. Even their assiduous captain Kane Williamson was sent home from Sri Lanka last month to give himself a break.

And all the while these cricketers are expected never to drop a catch or make a wrong decision while batting — not one out of the thousand or so decisions involved in a masterpiece of craftsmanship like BradleyJohn Watling’s 205 that won the opening test for New Zealand by an innings.

Fortunately, Joe Root’s test players, while on the treadmill, have grown a particular habit. If they fall off it — perhaps through being mentally jaded and overstretched — they get back on straight away and concentrate.

They lost a test, then won the next, against South Africa in the summer of 2017; lost then won against West Indies directly afterwards. After losing — or at best drawing — all that (northern) winter in Australia and New Zealand, they lost then won against Pakistan and India in the summer of 2018; and lost then won against West Indies and Australia earlier this year.

“It feels almost like a one-day game in terms of how quick the turnaround is,” Root said.

“You’ve seen how well that side — there’s a lot of guys that overlap — how well they respond.

“Look at this test team over the last couple of years and, when we have been beaten, we’ve generally come back well. Granted it’s usually at home, but there’s no reason we can’t here [Seddon Park].

“Everyone seems to have pulled up really well. Obviously, the fact that we didn’t bowl last helped, so that’s a good sign and a sign of where our fitness as a squad is,” Root said.

Another reason for Root to be cheerful was that New Zealand will lack Trent Boult — it will be the first test the quick left-armer has missed since 2017 — and Colin de Grandhomme. Less cheering was the realisation that England, therefore, had only three fit bowlers to withstand on the last day at Mt Maunganui: Boult bowled one over on the fifth day, while de Grandhomme damaged an abdomen muscle on the fourth evening. He still managed one wicket on the last day when Root got out to what he had the natural grace to call his “two horrendous shots” in the first test.

Root was laughing again while he practised his slip-catching with Zak Crawley on the green field that is Seddon Park in early summer — a pointer to Crawley’s long-term future — while they were put through their paces by Paul Collingwood. He and Graham Thorpe took charge as the head coach Chris Silverwood prepares to travel home for the funeral of his father-in-law.

It is easier for Williamson to project gravitas in this series. He stands at mid-off, takes the ball, polishes it, talks to his bowler alongside if needs be, and everyone knows who is boss.

Root, however, has a full team on his side for the second test, and this habit of bounce-back ability.

Look at this test team over the last couple of years and, when we have been beaten, we’ve come back well. Joe Root