Root will have target on his back and must shed hosts’ ‘little boy lost’ tag

Will hit England captain hard in hope that the rest of team follow but he has matured since the last tour

There has been a lot of praise in the past week for Joe Root’s leadership and the way he spearheaded negotiations for his team over conditions in Australia but the biggest challenge to his authority still awaits.

Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood will be far tougher negotiators with a ball in hand than Cricket Australia officials on a Zoom call and how well Root handles those two will go a long way to deciding England’s Ashes hopes and his captaincy legacy.

Cummins twice dismissed Root for golden ducks in the last series in 2019, bowling him with a beauty that hit the top of off stump as Australia retained the Ashes in Manchester, and has taken his wicket seven times in 10 Tests. Hazlewood has also dismissed Root seven times, with more than half of the 14 dismissals by the pair either off the edge or bowled.

They will not bowl short at Root, he will not face the same peppering that awaits the others, but instead Cummins and Hazlewood will continue to go full, hunting for lbw and nicks with a relentless line and length at pace designed to wear down England’s best player.

Root, as captain, carries a big target on his back anyway. Andrew Strauss is the only England captain to score a hundred in Australia this century and just one man has done it twice, and that was Archie

Maclaren more than 120 years ago. Root averaged a decent 47.85 on the last tour but it was nowhere near enough as his team failed to make commanding first-innings scores before Steve Smith showed them how to do it as he drained the life out of the bowlers.

Now, after such a fine year Australia will hit Root even harder, raising the level of intensity when he comes in, knowing that if they cut the head off the body, it will quickly collapse in a heap.

They will be quick to remind Root that he has never scored a hundred in Australia. He was dropped for the only time in his career on his first Ashes tour in 2014 and ended the last trip exhausted and on a drip in a Sydney hospital; James Anderson had to deputise for the postseries presentation.

Root was dismissed as a “little boy” leading England by Ricky Ponting, who called on him to show a bit more fire after his side lost the 201718 Ashes after the third Test in Perth where he tried to be too nice to his own players by suggesting England had matched Australia, despite the scoreline. “You need to be more than that as a leader, especially when things aren’t going well,” said Ponting and Root never shed the “little boy lost” tag.

Again there is no Ben Stokes to rally England but Root has matured as a captain and a man over the past four years. He promised those close to him he would make 2021 his year and so far he has been as good as his word, scoring 1,455 runs to average 58.06 and carry his team. He returns to Australia with his career average back over 50.

He commands the respect of all his players and given the lack of leadership by the England and Wales Cricket Board in recent weeks, Root has been a beacon of light. He struck a good bargain for his players, ensuring the right conditions for families when they arrive in Australia, and cleverly played the media game by leaving on the table the threat of mass pull-outs from the Ashes tour, even though it was generally left unsaid.

Almost every England team arrives in Australia to be welcomed by headlines describing them as the most useless bunch of losers to set foot in the country. This time there is no hiding from their weaknesses and lack of depth. They have only one world-class Test player in Root, have picked a line-up of 80-85mph right arm over English seamers and two spinners not deemed good enough to play last summer.

Rory Burns is the only England player to score a century in 2021 apart from Root and half of the specialist batsmen in the squad have been dropped at some stage this year.

The responsibility lies on Root to give England hope. Australian hubris has cost them in the past and if Root can start well in Brisbane, belief could soon spread through others.

“We have a lot of experience of living and playing in bubbles and some of our players have thrived,” said Chris Silverwood, the head coach. “Look at Joe Root, he’s captained all 18 of those Tests and is in the middle of one of his best seasons, 1,300 runs at 50-odd is not bad playing in those conditions.”

It is not “not bad”, it is excellent, but it has to continue for five more Tests if Root is to ever get his hands on the Ashes urn as captain.

Every England team is welcomed as the most useless bunch of losers to set foot in Australia