If there was ever any doubt about Joe Root’s class, it is simply beyond debate after his match-winning heroics at Lord’s on Saturday and Sunday.
It wasn’t just that he dragged England over the line with 115 not out in their First Test victory over New Zealand. It wasn’t even that he surpassed the 10,000-run mark in reaching his 26th Test century.
It was also in how he showed that, captaincy or no captaincy, he has the desire and the will to keep on winning Test matches for England for some time to come.
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Root’s knock featured all the trademark shots that make him a nightmare to bowl to. His vision and execution mean you’d do well to keep his run rate down even if you had 15 players in the field. The straight drive, the sweep, the glance through the slip cordon, whatever Kane Williamson and the Kiwis did to attempt to frustrate him, there was something else in Root’s armoury that had them on their heels.
His feat in becoming the 14th player in Test history to reach five figures has had many wondering where he stands in the list of cricketing legends, and there’s plenty of time yet for him to topple many of the 13 wonderful batters who sit ahead of him in the Test runs archive.
Sir Alastair Cook, the only other Englishman to score 10,000-plus runs in Tests, was categorical in his assessment of the Yorkshireman when speaking to the BBC after Sunday’s five-wicket success.
Said Cook: “He is such a good player, the best player I’ve seen in an England shirt, the most complete, and it was kind of inevitable this morning after yesterday, given how well he controlled the run chase, his emotions, and how skilful that was. That was not an easy run chase, but he made it look very easy.”
A brilliant hundred - his 26th in Test cricket! 👏
And it would have been understandable if, on this occasion, Root’s emotions had been somewhat clouded given the backdrop of the last few months. This was the first Test match since he had relinquished the captaincy he had so loved amid continued England failures under his leadership.
Discounting the brief tenure of Kevin Pietersen, he was the first permanent England skipper since Nasser Hussain not to lift the Ashes at least once despite having three cracks at Australia in his record 64 matches in charge. Moreover, the last year had seen his side win only one of 17 Tests, and while his own form with the bat had been impressive, it was clear from looking at him just what a burden the leadership had become.
But now that he is back among the rank and file under new skipper Ben Stokes it is clear that he retains all of the match-turning abilities he featured when captain and has none of the added elements he had carried over the last five years. And his stats suggest he – and, by extension, England – could benefit.
While he hit 14 of his 26 centuries as captain, he averaged 46.44 with the armband compared to 53.63 without. And at the age of just 31, he has loads of time left in him to contribute to further England successes in years to come.
With 10,015 runs in less than 10 years at the top level and an increasingly packed Test calendar, Root will surely surpass Cook’s 12,472 to become England’s highest run scorer of all time. He even seems a safe bet to topple second-placed Ricky Ponting (13,378) on the worldwide list and shouldn’t be counted out from besting Sachin Tendulkar’s 15,921 if he decides he wants to add longevity to his string of attributes.
After all, Root remains England’s most important player even if he is no longer their captain. He was the main reason they won at Lord’s, and he will be the one wicket New Zealand will want more than any other in the remaining two Tests of this series. Stokes might have the X-Factor, but Root has the class and consistency to bat any opponent out of a match.
And now it seems only a matter of time until the whole of the cricketing world is talking about him in the same terms as we in England are. He truly is one of the greatest of all time.
*18+ | BeGambleAware
