Joe Root has insisted he would not change anything about England’s high-risk approach to the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston despite the bitter taste of defeat – but said he would love to return to his own appointment as captain in 2017 and attack with the same mindset as his successor, Ben Stokes.
“If I could go back in time I’d go back and start my captaincy the way Ben has and try to get us to play in a similar manner to how he does it,” Root said. “It’s far more exciting, it’s far more interesting, and I think we’re getting far more out of our team and our individuals. We’re playing better cricket to watch, we’re producing better results overall. And if we are going to grow as a team we can’t just look at a game like that, with a couple of moments that went against us, and say: ‘We need to go about things differently.’
“If anything we need to double down on the way we’re doing it, completely back ourselves, and make sure we get those one percenters right at Lord’s. That’s what the exciting thing is – we feel like we ran that game for five days and we might be on the wrong end of it but we’ve still got nowhere near the perfect game. There’s still so much more in that dressing room to get excited about.”
Since the first Test came to its dramatic conclusion there has been significant kickback against England’s methods, which on a pitch that – but for a single 20-minute period under thick cloud and floodlights on Sunday afternoon – offered little assistance to seam bowlers turned what might have been a dreary game into a classic. In most circumstances the game would have been drawn, but England conjured a chance of victory that brought with it significant risk of defeat.
“The wicket was very slow, and it could have made for a very long, mundane game,” Root said. “But the way we went about it we gave ourselves a great opportunity to win. That’s what we’re about, and that’s what we will look to do throughout the whole series. Defeat is always going to sting a little bit, but it stings less when you play in that manner and compete how we have done and give yourself an opportunity to win the game. You look at the last time we played them here [a 251-run defeat in 2019], we were chasing the game the whole time. This time we were setting the pace the whole way.
“We sent a strong message to everyone about how we want to go about things. We just have to go and do it again at Lord’s and again for three more after that. Everyone should strap in and expect exactly the same from us, because that’s what we’re about now.”
It is clear that England can expect no reverse ferrets, and more reverse scoops. Root is rapidly making the latter his signature shot, banking a couple more sixes with it at Edgbaston and memorably attempting it to the very first ball of day four, which the Telegraph called “the dot ball of the century”. It is a shot that leaves observers slack-jawed, such is the audacity and almost superhuman coordination required to pull it off.
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“I don’t feel like Superman, I’m absolutely bricking it when they’re running in to bowl most of the time,” Root said. “The first time I did it in the Test it was quite clear he was bowling wide, it didn’t feel like there was a lot of risk involved in it. Coming out first ball of the day, it was about being 28 for two and a chance to lay a marker down and say to everyone in the ground – our dressing room, the crowd – we are not here just to be bowled at, we’re here to push the game on and get ourselves in a position to win it. I think that’s how we look at the game now. From any position we feel like we can get somewhere which means we can hopefully go on and win.”
Having taken over as England’s headline spinner on the final day with Moeen Ali forced out of bowling action because of a painful spinning finger, Root expects to be relegated to his more familiar support slot when the second Test starts at Lord’s next Thursday. “I’m sure Mo will be absolutely fine,” he said. “But it’s always great when you get a chance to contribute to any Test match, you want to get involved and step up in those big moments. What a great spectacle it was, what great fun to be out there, to have a chance to affect the game. That’s what you want, and I’m always ready for the chance to take Test wickets.”
