“I was actually changing Alfie at the time, which was quite a strange dynamic.” This was the happy domestic scene when, in February 2017, new father Joe Root took the most important call of his life – being offered the England captaincy.
It was a call he had been expecting; after a disastrous 4-0 defeat by India at the end of 2016, Alastair Cook looked shattered, fed-up and ready to give up. “It is a huge honour to be given the England Test captaincy,” said Root at his official announcement. “I feel privileged, humbled and excited.”
India had seen the highpoint of Cook’s captaincy when he led his team to an improbable 2-1 series win in 2012-13. Root made his debut in the fourth Test, making an impressive 73 in his first innings followed by 20 not out in the second.
To captain your country in your sport is the stuff of childhood dreams, but the England cricket captaincy has regularly become a heavy burden on its occupants and has affected their own performances. You only have to look at the likes of Cook, Andrew Strauss and Michael Vaughan in recent times to see that. Root has been no different.
His captaincy career got off to a perfect start. On a warm, July day at Lord’s, the new skipper strode to the crease with his team faltering at 17-2. He was out, 190 runs later, having played one of his finest innings. “This was a Root masterclass, the added responsibility showing no sign of altering his natural flair,” is how Wisden.com described the innings, ranking it the third best Test knock of the year. Unfortunately for the England captain, the serene form he showed on that day has become increasingly elusive.
Or has it?
When Root came into the England team at the tender age of 21, equipped with a good technique and an innocently charming smile, he made an instant impact. After his first Test as captain, age 26, his batting average was 54.1 and he firmly had a place in the “Big Four” alongside titans of the modern game, Steve Smith, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson. He now sits below the other three with an average of 49.4. Since becoming captain he has averaged 45.7 making eight hundreds.
The pressure placed on players who are extremely successful from a young age is immense. We plan out their career paths for them at the pub. You can hear it now, “Well, he will be captain at this age and by that time he will be the best batsman in the world.” On Monday Night Football last week, Jamie Carragher spoke about Wayne Rooney. “Because he was so good at such a young age, we automatically think he is going to be the best player in the world … and sometimes you get the feeling that people think he underachieved, when in fact he had an incredible career,” said Carragher.
Root has fallen victim to the same curse. Just because his career has seemingly plateaued, before taking a gradual descent, does not make him a bad player. He still scored the most runs of any England player in the period since becoming captain, even the mercurial Ben Stokes only averages 41.4.
Modern-day sport, thanks to social media, seems bereft of patience. Everything is black or white; good or bad. But so often in sport, it isn’t always that easy. Just look at the recent situation at Chelsea. Under club legend Frank Lampard, one minute they are on course to challenge for the title, the next minute he had lost his job.
Root’s ‘decline’ meant he has come under increasing pressure from all quarters. Does he need to give up the captaincy to save his batting? What’s wrong with his trigger movements? Why does he keep getting out between 50 and a hundred? Over the past two weeks in Sri Lanka, he has silenced those doubts.
The fishing port of Galle sits at the bottom tip of Sri Lanka and is home to one of cricket’s most picturesque grounds. A 16th century fort looms over one end of the ground, normally providing viewing space for the Barmy Army. For these two behind-closed-doors Tests, it provided viewing space for one man – Rob Lewis, the solitary England fan in Sri Lanka. Lewis had the best seat in the house for a Root masterclass.
He scored 426 runs, at an average of 106.5. His 228 in the first innings of the first Test was a real statement of intent, but to back it up in the second Test with an equally imperious 186 showed Root’s class. He used the sweep shot to devastating effect throughout, it saw more action in his two hundreds than Trigger’s broom. In conditions that everyone else seemed to struggle with, Root batted with his trademark poise and fluency.
Over the course of the series Root moved up to fourth in the list of all-time Test run scorers for England, overtaking Geoffrey Boycott, Kevin Pietersen and David Gower in doing so. He also has a better average than anyone else in the top ten. The ‘slump’ Root has experienced since becoming captain would be enough for some batsman to be classed as being in the ‘form of their life.’
This year is a defining one for the England Test team, with 17 matches – of which two have been played. They now face four games in India, the toughest place for any team to win. Since Cook’s triumph there India have only lost one Test at home. After India they face, the current number No.1 ranked side in the world New Zealand for two games. Then Kohli’s Indian team come England. And to cap off the year Root leads his team Down Under to retrieve the most prestigious of prizes – the Ashes urn.
By the end of the year, Root will be 31 and the legacy of his captaincy will have gone a long way to being decided. Don’t let his captaincy cloud the fact we are watching one of England’s greats.
After a year like that changing nappies will seem like a rest.
By Alex Brinton
Photo credit to Cricket Sri Lanka