Castrol Activ Player of the ICC World T20 – Joe Root
It is always a tough task choosing the best player in a team tournament. A group of individuals combine to form a unit that strives to win games and, eventually, the tournament. In a game like cricket, it is very difficult to pick one player as the best because there is batting and bowling—two different criteria—to choose from.
It is for this reason that picking an all-rounder as the best player of a tournament is given the most preference. However, the lack of genuinely world class all-rounders in cricket has brought a dearth of great all-round performances in tournaments.
And it was no different in this World T20 as well. While there were some great all-round displays in a game, the numbers weren’t so glorious when it came to whole scale of the tournament. The World T20 was a tournament which was dominated by batsmen and the flat decks in India won’t make you wonder why.
As such, after some thorough research, we think the player of the tournament is Joe Root. Just as Castrol Activ’s Actibonds cling on to each other and protect the engine, Joe Root’s performances thrilled the fans and gave his team a sense of trust and protection.
Virat Kohli won the man of the tournament, and rightfully so, but it would have just as justifiable if Root had laid his hands on the trophy instead. Both of these players performed exceedingly well in this tournament and the only thing that differentiates the two is that Root led his team to the final, while Kohli just fell short.
England fans perhaps didn’t have high expectations after being pitted against South Africa and West Indies in Group A. However, they knew if they were to succeed in the tournament, Joe Root—a man in unreal form—would have to be at his best.
And he was. In the six games he played in the World T20, he scored 249 runs. The only other person who scored more runs than him in the main tournament was Virat Kohli.
He kicked off the tournament scoring 48 runs against West Indies, which ultimately went in vain as it was shadowed by Chris Gayle’s stormer of a knock. It was, however, in the very next game that we saw his bloody best.
After South Africa posted a mammoth target of 230 for England to chase, the game was good as over for them. However, Root didn’t let Jason Roy’s blazing innings of 43 runs in 16 balls go to waste as he built on the platform laid by the opener.
In the 44 balls that he faced, he scored 83 runs and took his team’s score to 219 before getting out. It was a sign of what he could do.
The next two games were nothing special, but he got starts of 12 and 25 against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, respectively.
In the next game, his score of 27* might not echo greatness, but in a low-scoring encounter and against an opposition like New Zealand, he kept his cool and got his team over the line.
And then came the final. England’s top order had failed. Even the in-form Jason Roy got out in the first over, leaving England in a state of quandry. However, Joe Root came and, along with Jos Buttler, saved the team from a massive collapse.
He scored 54 runs in 36 balls before he was sent back to the pavilion. His contribution in the game wasn’t over yet, however, as he took two very crucial wickets of Chris Gayle and Johnson Charles in the one over that he bowled.
What was admirable about him was the fact that he could not only build innings from scratch, he could do it at a quick pace. While most sheet-anchors are found guilty of consuming too many balls—a crime in a game of T20—Joe Root always makes sure the runs keep ticking at a quick rate.
With West Indies needing 19 runs of the last over, it seemed as though Root’s performance would go down as the best in the game. But, destiny had something else in mind. Nonetheless, it doesn’t undermine his invaluable displays of batting in this tournament—something that carried England to the finals—and that is why he is our player of the tournament.