Root: I’m ready to replace Cook
JOE ROOT is still coming to terms with a major change in his personal life but is adamant he is ready to take on another great challenge in his professional one. Root’s arrival in India was delayed by the birth of his first child and he admits it was not ideal to leave partner Carrie and baby Alfred after just four days together to travel here for the most difficult of one-day series.
But if, as expected, he is asked to become England’s Test captain when he returns to his new family at the start of next month then Root, 26, is confident he will be equipped to embrace the biggest job in English cricket.
‘People say you don’t know until you’re in that position but I’d like to think so because I’ve got a bit of experience now in Test cricket and I feel I’d have something to offer,’ said Root when asked yesterday if he was ready to succeed Alastair Cook as England captain. ‘I hope it won’t come to that because I’d like Cooky to continue.’
Clearly, all in the England camp, including Root, are behind Cook and hope he carries on despite the 4-0 Test thrashing here.
Yet the impression remains that the official passing of the Test baton from Cook to his anointed successor is merely being delayed while England try to find a way to beat Virat Kohli’s India in limited-overs cricket. ‘I’ve not spoken to anyone about it,’ said Root of the captaincy. ‘The only stuff I’ve seen is what you guys have written. Honestly, I’m not aware of what’s going on. I’ve spoken to Cooky a couple of times but it’s been about how the baby is doing and whether we needed any help, so he’s been good in that respect.
‘I’m clueless as to what’s going on and I just hope he makes a decision he’s happy with. He needs space. I really would like to see him continue as captain because he’s a great leader and he can take this team forward.
‘I suppose the timing isn’t quite relevant but being a dad you don’t know what to do until you just sort of go with it and see how it goes,’ said Root. ‘I imagine that captaincy would be very similar.’
Root’s focus is also on the family. Like Cook, who arrived in Bangladesh in October just hours after the birth of his baby daughter, Root had to kiss his loved ones goodbye to return to work.
‘ It wasn’t very nice having to leave them but it’s an occupational hazard,’ said Root. ‘You just have to get stuck in to your cricket and it gives you something nice to look forward to when you get home.
‘We’re very lucky to have FaceTime and I contact them frequently. Obviously, I’d like to be at home but I’m sure it’s going too be like this in the future so I have to try to get used to it.
‘ Stokesy ( Ben Stokes) has been talking me through all the gruesome details of what he had to go throughh with changing nappieses but I’m lucky to haveave other people in the squad who have been throughgh it.’
First, Root and England go into Thursday’s second one-day international in Cuttack hoping to find a way to stop the best player in the world in Kohli after India’s stunning run chase to go one up in Pune on Sunday.
‘We noticed that he did chance his arm early on,’ said Root. ‘There were a couple of times when he just got it over third man and in that five-over period after MS Dhoni got out it looked as though we could get a wicket at any time.
‘If we’re in a similar situation again we don’t want to be scared or intimidated and one thing we know is that you’re never sure what will be enough on these small grounds so we rreally have to push to get as many as we can. And when you take early wickets you have to make sure you capitalise on it.’ England lost the Test series 4-0 and arear now 1-0 down in the 50-over matches with two to play. It will be extremely tough from here. ‘If we want to be the best one-day side in the world then the way we are thinking is we’ve made our highest score in 50-over cricket and we have to get close to it more consistently,’ said Root. ‘I suppose games like this are good learning curves because we had three guys get 50-plus and they had two get hundreds. ‘We’ve got the talent but we’ve got to do it more often, make big hundreds and get three or four guys in the top 10 in the world.’