England’s star batter Joe Root said it’s time for him to give back to Test captain Ben Stokes, who supported him a lot during his own time as captain from 2017 to 2022. Since handing over the captaincy to Stokes three years ago, Root has scored 3,117 of his 13,006 Test runs in 36 matches.
Joe Root’s New Role After Captaincy
Though it felt a bit strange at first to return to the team as just a player, Root has enjoyed this phase the most in his career, averaging an impressive 56.67. At 34, he believes the best way to back Stokes is by continuing to score big runs.
Brendon McCullum took over as head coach in 2022 and teamed up with Ben Stokes to introduce the aggressive ‘Bazball’ style of cricket. While it’s mostly known for its attacking approach, Joe Root believes there’s much more depth to the strategy than what people see on the surface.
“Ben did so much for me as my vice-captain, now it’s my turn to give a bit back to him. It was difficult and weird coming back into the team after being leader. I didn’t want to get in Ben’s way or step on his toes, but I wanted him to know I was there to support him,” Stokes told Skt Sports.
“I knew a big part of that was scoring runs. I wanted to make sure I could affect games with the bat, and clearly, if I was following his lead as a former captain, it sends a strong message to anyone coming into the team or not as established as myself,” he added.
Stokes will be counting on Root’s strong form in the upcoming five-Test series against India, starting June 20 at Headingley. Although India will be without star batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who retired from Tests last year, the restructured Indian side is still seen as a serious challenge.
“It has become the most fun time of my career. Playing the way we play, the environment that has been created. The job Ben and [head coach] Brendon [McCullum] have done has been fabulous, and so much fun has come with it,” he said.
“It might not always get reported how it actually is – I don’t think Bazball is the right way to describe it. It has clearly been a big change and is different to how a lot of teams play, but there is a lot more method to it than is probably perceived,” he added.
India’s New-Look Squad Without Rohit and Kohli
India’s squad: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana
England’s Line-up for the First Test at Headingley
England squad for first Test vs India: Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Ben Stokes (capt), Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes.
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