Joe Root says he has the confidence to thrive at No.3, a position that was so secure in Jonathan Trott’s possession between 2010 and 2013
Alan Gardner at Lord's12-Jul-2016Such is the positivity around the England set-up at the moment that you can imagine, if confronted by the lemons currently queuing up to make a mess of the UK’s political system, they would happily get down to the business of serving up lemonade – and without delay.Much of England’s fizz over the last 18 months has been provided by the batting of Joe Root and he will be exercising his transferable skills this week when he returns as a permanent member of the Test top three for the first time since the 2013-14 Ashes. The argument against moving Root up the order has been along the lines of not weakening one of the side’s strengths but, after the failure of Nick Compton to make the No. 3 spot his own, England have decided to once again take the plunge.Root shrugs off Wahab ‘trash talk’
Joe Root has described as “trash talk” suggestions from Wahab Riaz that Pakistan have been formulating plans to stop him in the upcoming Tests.
“Yeah I heard about that,” he said. “It’s the same before every series. It’s getting a bit like boxing now. He is a fantastic bowler. Good pace, gets the ball to reverse swing, so it will be interesting to see how that goes throughout the series.”
Wahab later confirmed, with a grin, that Pakistan would be targeting England’s new No. 3 – “the backbone of the team” – but declined to go into details. Root made 287 runs at 57.40 in the UAE last winter, falling to Rahat Ali twice, and once apiece to Wahab, Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah.
“You want me to tell you the plans? Every batsman has a strong point and a weak point and obviously you have to work hard on that and practise hard on that,” Wahab said. “Joe Root is the backbone of the England team and getting him out early will put the pressure on England. If he thinks it is just trash talk then hats off to him.”
An Australian-style system of putting your best batsman at first drop should be slightly more straightforward to implement than an Australian-style points system on immigration (as favoured by the Brexit camp in last month’s EU referendum) and Root – currently No. 4 on the ICC’s Test batting rankings – made the sort of calming noises that English politicians have become incapable of when referring to the challenge ahead.Never mind that his combined average at opener or No. 3 is 33.75, compared to 63.07 in the two spots lower down. Never mind that he ended up out of the side by the time of the fifth Test in Sydney after being hastily promoted to fill in for the departed Jonathan Trott three winters ago. Never mind that he was bowled by a shooter at Lord’s – where England’s Test against Pakistan will begin on Thursday – in his most recent Test innings, batting at No. 3 after an injury sustained by Alastair Cook.To slip into business speak, Root sees the doughnut where everyone else sees the hole. He said that Cook had teased him for having “weaselled” his way down the order, after they briefly opened together in the 2013 Ashes (Root again replacing Compton), and suggested he was confident he had the game to thrive in a position that was so secure in Trott’s possession between 2010 and 2013.”I’ve matured quite a lot as a player and my game has developed a lot,” he said. “It will be interesting to see how it goes. It would be wrong to compare it to batting anywhere else. I’ve batted at No. 3 before but as a kid I always opened so I’m used to batting against the new ball. It’s only since I’ve been playing for England that I moved further down anyway. I have experience of opening, batting at No. 3 and I’m just looking forward to getting on with it.”It certainly will be “interesting to see how it goes” against a Pakistan attack expected to be adept at asking questions with the new ball. Root’s eagerness to please may, of course, see him come unstuck again, but bobbing back up the order had begun to look inevitable, in part because of Trevor Bayliss’ preference for the Australian way of doing things. It has not taken long for Bayliss and Cook to wear him down.”There have been a few conversations over the last six months about looking more long-term, not in one series in particular, but that it was something that could happen down the line,” Root said. “That was in their thoughts and gave me an opportunity to think about it. I was asked leading up to the selection that it could be a possibility, and I said: ‘Yeah, I think that could be the right thing to do’. All parties were pretty happy on where it stands.”Trevor mentioned it to me, so from that point it’s been in my thoughts and I started trying to get my head round it being a big change, but there is not a lot of difference there. You could be in second ball but how I’d line up and look to play would probably not change a huge amount. Look to play the situation as it is and take the game from there. Any opportunities to score, I’ll still try to do that.”It is less than a year since Root was shunted up a place from No. 5 – where he has made more than half of his Test runs, at an average of 73.12 – but his contribution of 63, 38 not out and 130 in consecutive innings at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge immediately vindicated the move. Despite slim returns against Sri Lanka in the first part of the summer, he seems keen to prove himself worthy of another promotion.”Cooky takes the mick out of me saying you’ve got such a great record batting where you do, but you should do it at the top where it really matters. He is right. He said you only did the five Tests and then weaselled your way down the order. I’m pretty happy with the opportunity and I just want to get cracking now.”