Joe Root

Part of the Fab Four of Test cricket along with Kane Williamson, Steve Smith and Virat Kohli, Joe Root is known for his solid batting technique and consistency. Coming from a family with a rich cricketing background, Root has been impressing from the very start.

Root started initially as a right-handed opening batsman and an occasional off-spinner and then moved to the middle order where he has played most of his cricket. From making his debut in 2012 to being named in the country’s greatest Test XI by the ECB to winning the World Cup, Joe Root has come a long way in his cricketing career.

Joe Root - Along the Years

Awards

2014 - Wisden Cricketer of the Year

2014, 2015, 2016 - ICC Test Team of the Year

2015, 2018 - ICC ODI Team of the Year

2015 - England Test Cricketer of the Year

2015 - England Limited-Overs Cricketer of the Year

2015 - Fan’s Player of the Year

Career

Domestic Career

Root learned the basics of the game at the Sheffield Collegiate before making a debut for Yorkshire Second Team in 2007. Success at the second team level saw him getting promoted to the first team. Around the same time, Smith also played for the England Under-19 against Bangladesh and won the Man of the Series award.

He was also selected for the 2010 Under-19 Cricket World Cup squad. The next year he made his Championship debut against Worcestershire. Root was the captain of the Yorkshire side which won the 2014 County Championship title in 2014 and 2015.

IPL Career

IPL 2018 was the first season for which Joe Root took part in the IPL auction. Root went unsold in the bidding. For the 2019 IPL season, Joe Root was disallowed by the England Cricket Board to put his name forward for the tournament due to the 2019 World Cup.

International Career

ODI Career

Joe Root made his ODI debut against India National cricket team in 2013. He made his maiden ODI fifty in his fourth match. After this, he was included in the squad for the 2013 Tour to New Zealand. He scored two half-centuries in the first two matches of the series. Root was named in England’s squad or the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. He played a crucial role in getting his team to the final and was named in the “Team of the Tournament’ by the ICC.

Root then played in the ODI series against Australia in 2014 where he was dropped after a poor performance in the first two matches and was recalled for the last match. Joe Root was part of the team that toured West Indies in 2015. In the third ODI of the series, Root made his maiden ODI century. For his performance in the series, Root received the Player of the Series award. Root was then selected for the seven match ODI series against Sri Lanka where he performed quite well even though England didn’t manage to win the series.

Root was selected for the 2015 Cricket World Cup where he became the youngest English player to score a century at a World Cup after hitting a ton against Sri Lanka. Root was selected for the tour to the UAE in 2015 to face Pakistan. It was the time that Root was playing against Pakistan. Root finished the series with 145 runs and he was named as 12th main in the World ODI XI by the ICC for the year 2015.

In 2016, Root was part of the squad of the ODI series against India. Root made two half-centuries in the first two matches before getting ruled out of the final match due to an injury. Root was selected for the 2017 Champions Trophy and was part of the ‘Team of the Tournament’ by the ICC. The same year he became the third-fastest batsman, in terms of number of innings, to score 4,000 runs in the ODIs. 2018 was a good year for Root as he scored 800 runs from just 19 innings. His performance saw him getting named in the World ODI XI by the ICC for the year 2018.

Joe Root was selected for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Root had an excellent start to the tournament, scoring three half-centuries in the first six matches. Joe Root helped keeping England’s batting lineup together throughout the tournament. Root’s batting technique and the ability to keep the scorecard running helped England throughout the tournament. He was named in the Team of the Tournament for the 2019 World Cup by the ICC. Root finished the World Cup with 556 runs from 11 innings.

Test Career

Joe Root’s Test debut came against India in 2012. He made 73 runs from 229 balls in his first innings. After this series, he was selected for the 2013 Tour to New Zealand. He ended the series with a paltry 88 runs. Following this, New Zealand toured England. He scored his first Test century in this series and ended the series with 243 runs. Root was then selected for the 2013 Ashes. He scored a century in the second match of the series.

He also took first Test wicket in the series. He was then selected for the 2013-2014 Ashes series. Root failed to perform in the series and was eventually dropped for the last match for the series. He finished the series with 192 runs to his name. A series against India followed the Ashes in which Joe Root performed quite well, scoring 518 runs and took 1 wicket. He was named in the World Test XI by the ICC for the year 2014.

Also see - Ben Stokes Biography

Root was selected for the England squad for the series against West Indies. Root continued his good form and scored two half-centuries in the first Test. In the second match, he scored his sixth Test century. Following this, he was selected for the series against New Zealand, which he finished with 183 runs and a wicket to his credit.

Root was made the vice captain of the Test team before the beginning of the 2015 Ashes. He scored a century in the first match of the series. He scored another century in the fourth Test match. He finished the series as England’s highest run scorer and also reached the number one spot in the ICC Test batting rankings. After this, another major Test series for Joe Root was against India in 2016. He had a mixed bag of performances as England lost the series. Root was the captain of the English team in the 2017-18 Ashes. England had a poor outing as they lost four out of the five Tests.Root failed to score any century in the series and had to retire in the final match due to gastroenteritis.

England bounced back and defeated India 4-1 in a five-match series. Root scored a ton in the last match of the series. After this, England toured Sri Lanka where Joe ROot secured his first ever test series away win as captain. In 2019, while playing against West Indies in third test match of the series, Joe Root had an exchange of words with Shannon Gabriel, the West Indies fast bowler. The use of abusive language by Gabriel resulted in him getting a four-match ban. Joe Root again had to taste failure as a captain in Ashes when Australia got their hand on the Ashes 2019 trophy. With this, he also became the first English captain in 18 years to have failed to win the Ashes at home.

T20I Career

Joe Root made his T20I debut against India in December of 2012. In 2013, he was selected for the T20I series against Australia. He managed to score 90 not out in the first match of the series. Joe Root was selected in the England squad for the 2016 World Twenty20. He scored a half-century in the final and took a wicket, becoming only the third player ever to do so in an ICC World T20 final. He was also part of the series against India in 2016-17. He made 30+ scores in all the three matches of the series.

Captaincy

Root was named as the full-time Test captain in February of 2017 after the retirement of Alastair Cook. He scored a century in his first match as the captain, becoming the sixth English player to do. Root has been criticised for his captaincy quite some time with critics often questioning his defensive captaincy, like in that of 2017-18 Ashes. Root’s batting average also dropped after picking up the captaincy.

Family

Joe Root is the eldest son of his parents, Helen and Matt Root. In his early days, Root joined Sheffield Collegiate CC, which his father had also joined in his time. Root and his girlfriend Carrie Cotterell got engaged in March 2016 and married in 2018.