Joe Root: Batting is not all about bish, bash, bosh
Joe Root says he has the ‘smarts’ to keep pace with England’s World Cup whackers
Joe Root remembers vividly the start of england’s four- year journey to a World Cup they enter as favourites. one ball in, one wicket down, it was a rare occurrence of him being caught short.
‘I was having a wee at the time so, more than anything, I was just trying to make sure I got all my pads on and was ready,’ recalls Root as he casts his mind back to the match versus New Zealand at edgbaston.
‘We said we were going to play in a certain manner and it was important that we at least gave it a go for a period of time.
‘It was a beautiful wicket and Brendon McCullum liked to play ultra-attacking cricket, to take as many wickets as he could. It had served them very well in the World Cup, which meant there were plenty of scoring opportunities.
‘I got off to a bit of a flier, we went past 400 and discovering that we were capable of doing what we said we were going to do instilled a lot of belief in the group.
‘then it was about backing that up. once we’d done it three or four times, the sky was the limit for this team. It was just about doing it consistently and gradually over the four years we’ve managed that.’
england’s 408 for nine that day was their record oDI score. they have raised the bar three times since, during which time they have hit 11 of their 12 highest totals. Root’s hundred in Birmingham was the first of 48 for the team and it has almost gone unnoticed he is the leading contributor to that tally with 10.
In what Jurgen Klopp might call ‘ heavy metal’ cricket, Root is england’s conductor, setting the beat between the crashes and riffs.
Since Australia were crowned world champions for a fifth time on home soil in the spring of 2015, only the prolific India duo Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have hit more one-day international runs than Root’s 3,498. that tally has come at an average of 58.30 and at 91 runs per 100 balls, hardly the shabbiest of strike-rates.
Yet there is a responsibility when in tandem with players capable of reaching three figures off fewer than 75 balls — like Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow and eoin Morgan — to judge his own tempo.
‘It’s quite tricky sometimes. the danger is to think, “I am trying to be the glue of the team” and to bat in a certain way every time.
‘When I am playing at my best, that’s not the main focus of my approach. It’s to assess the conditions and situation and then play according to that,’ he says. ‘Sometimes it can be taking a back seat, giving Jason, Jonny or Morgs as much strike as possible. I have to be pragmatic about that and understand that I might have to rein myself back and let them have the strike because when that’s the case we generally go on, take the game away from the opposition and make huge scores. ‘there will be other occasions when I might have to be more forceful and proactive, put bowlers back under pressure and move the board on myself. ‘In more recent times, because of the high skill within our batting group and the form of some of the guys, I might have taken a slightly more reserved approach. ‘But I’d like to think it’s not my only way of playing one- day cricket and that there will be an occasion where I will be able to let loose.’ A caveat to this is Root’s admission that a desire to be an automatic selection across all three formats pushed him down a road of trying to be something that he is not. omission from england’s twenty20 team, not long after he topped their batting at the 2016 World twenty20, led him to book private sessions with power-hitting expert Julian Wood. ‘I probably looked for too much change rather than improving what I’ve got and I have come back now to maximising what I have and making that as good as I can,’ he explains.
‘I’ve had a couple of sessions recently in which I’ve felt like I’ve not struck a ball as well or as far. It’s come from just relying on timing and giving myself time to manage different deliveries.
‘More twenty20 experience, at the Big Bash last winter and in recent matches against West Indies and Pakistan, has provided great learning for me.
‘ Being left out last summer versus India clarified a lot of things for me and I know I can rely on my smarts and unique scoring areas to get similar results to what others might get through brute force.
‘Just because I don’t hit it 30 yards back into the stands doesn’t mean I can’t have a strike-rate of 180- 200 on occasions and consistently score at 130, offering a more condensed version of my 50-over stuff.
‘ Ultimately, cricket’s about scoring runs collectively and making big partnerships. It doesn’t matter the format, big partnerships win you games or set the game up and there are always different methods of putting them together.’
the flexibility of thinking works both ways. over the next few weeks of a quest to make history as part of the first england team to win a global 50-over trophy, he might find himself surplus to requirements at No 3. ‘We have had discussions in the dressing room about sending Jos in if we were to lose a wicket at a particular time, because we’ve assessed that 400 was a good score on that pitch,’ he reveals.
‘Having the understanding of that and the realisation within the group that it’s the way to go means there are no egos getting in the way. It’s not a case of it being a flat wicket and me not wanting to miss
ROOT ON A BUSY SUMMER ‘The Ashes or the World Cup? I couldn’t choose!’
ROOT ON BEING THE ‘GLUE’ ‘There will be a time when I am able to let loose’
out. It’s all about us getting the best out of the conditions and scoring as many as we can.
‘ There is a genuine will for success, not just as a collective group but for each other.’
Indeed, Buttler was asked to go in ahead of Morgan in the recent win over Pakistan in Southampton but argued that the bowlers on at the time, allied to the dimensions of the ground, better suited a left-hander.
England’s vice- captain Buttler appears to have reached a new level since the turn of 2018. So, does he realise how good he is?
‘There’s an underlying understanding of what he’s capable of,’ says Root. ‘He’s a very modest guy who’s desperate to improve and maximise what he’s got. He’s also clever, a fine reader of the game.
‘A lot of judging the conditions comes from experience. Doing it once, seeing it work, knowing what that feels like, doing it again.
‘It’s comparable to MS Dhoni, who is able to perform frequently in Twenty20 because he’s played a lot of it. He understands his limitations and what he’s capable of. It’s a combination of ability, approach and an understanding.
‘Jos is a cricket-smart guy. He is getting things absolutely right a lot more frequently.’
Amid the talk of the batting that makes England favourites for the first World Cup on home soil for 20 years — Root doesn’t recall much of 1999 except the Australia v South Africa matches and the Aussies winning the final — a word for an oft- overlooked bowling attack.
‘I guess we are known for our batting but one of the things that’s been so good about this team is that guys have won us games with the ball when we haven’t made the scores we should’ve done, like Chris Woakes defending single figures in a match in New Zealand or us holding off Australia in Perth last year,’ Root continues.
Lessons have also been learned from near misses and intermittent brain fades. ‘Whenever we’ve had a bad day in which we’ve not played near the way we could, we have not taken a backwards step,’ the 28-year-old reflects.
‘There was a game against South Africa at Lord’s when we got blown away and another at Adelaide when we were eight for five, came back and nearly won. The approach has always been very similar but the one thing we have tried to develop is being a bit cuter at managing conditions and not just being a team who’s capable of scoring 400 on flat wickets.
‘That’s come from losing games like the Champions Trophy semifinal against Pakistan two years ago. If we had been a bit smarter, we would have worked out 290-300 was a good score rather than the 350-plus we’d managed previously in that tournament.
‘But it has been part of our journey and a big factor in why we sit here as the No 1 side. Why we are in the best place to try to win this World Cup. Not that it guarantees us anything.’
So if Root, England’s Test captain, could be guaranteed glory in this summer of a World Cup and the Ashes, which would he choose? ‘I couldn’t. They’re so different. And when you start a tournament or a big series like the Ashes, you just get absorbed in it.
‘For the next six weeks it’s hard to think about anything other than the World Cup.’