Joe Root: Rooting firmly within the English cricketing ranks

Joe Root celebrates reaching his century during day two of 2nd  Test match between England and New Zealand at Headingley on May 25, 2013 in Leeds, England. (Getty Images)

Joe Root has been one new constant in the English team ever since his debut against India at the start of the 2012-13 cricketing season. In a short while that he’s been around, the 22-year old has come to be an integral part of the squad; quickly rising through the team’s ranks amongst his more senior peers.

Effective with the ball as well as the bat, there are various nuances of his own that the Yorkshireman brings into the English cricketing motley. He’s managed to follow up a successful debut overseas with convincing performances back home at England, both in Tests and ODIs.

Already, his consistency has reaped in rewards with him being selected to open the English innings alongside skipper Alastair Cook in the first major preparatory match (against Essex on Sunday) before the Ashes. If this partnership does indeed take off for England, then Root may very well find himself promoted up the order for the first Ashes Test to be held at Trent Bridge on July 10.

It may be quite a gamble, but England seem to be counting on Root’s ability to make a place for himself as an opener as seamlessly as he as embedded his presence in the middle-order. Root’s promotion up the batting order is also intended to be an opportunity to groom the youngster for a bigger, more challenging role. Root’s dependability, in many ways, has also been the catalyst for England opting for such a bold move.

His self-assuredness (without being cocky) has helped England successfully come out of tight spots. The fact that Root’s able to modulate his game suited to his team’s needs has proven to be a big asset for England. There have been times when Root’s been the aggressive batsman on crease, plundering runs from all over the outfield.

And there have been times, when he’s taken a backseat, taking on a supporting role, allowing his team-mate to score runs at a brisker pace at the other end. It’s this assurance of Root’s solidity and maturity that has allowed the English openers and the lower-order to play their game freely without having to worry about a collapse of their middle-order.

There are many who equate Root with Michael Vaughan, even predicting that he will follow in Vaughn’s footsteps and lead the English squad in the near future. As it so happens, there are a lot of professional similarities between Vaughn and Root, with the newcomer continuing almost exactly on the First Class and international footsteps of his illustrious county-man.

As fruitful as Vaughan’s legacy to English cricket was, Root is expected to take his cricketing concreteness to even higher pedestals. A surety that even Vaughan accepts with no qualifications.

But qualifications have indeed come in from other quarters. There are those who describe Root’s game as staid and stuffy with absolute monotonousness. Detractors have also tarred the Yorkshireman’s personality with the same feathers making him out to be an old, greying person rather than a lively youngster.

Root himself admits to being ho-hum, but his so-called boring attitude is known to hide a flashy-prankster-pulling-youngster thus entrenching himself within the team even more deeply.

The recent spat between David Warner and Root was the fall-out of one such simple and completely guiltless practical joke that caused the Australian team much worry about the attitudinal display of one of their temperamental players. Where Warner’s actions were severely criticised, Root came out as a different persona gaining even more fandom and wholehearted support from his team-members in the process.

Such overwhelming support for the youngster from the more senior members of the team and also the team’s coaching management has then given Root ample incentives to flourish as a cricketer, whilst developing his own personality alongside. Whatever the game’s format might be, Joe Root isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon, literalising his name in the strongest of manners.