Root spoke about the mixed emotions he felt when he returned to the England Test team after stepping down as captain to Ben Stokes. He called the early days weird and difficult but found his groove as a specialist batsman after being out of the captaincy. Root made sure to back Stokes without overdoing it and focused on scoring runs instead. And it paid off, he’s scored 3,117 runs at 56.67 in the 36 Tests since Stokes took over.
In a chat with SkySports, Root talked about Stokes’ captaincy and how it affected him. He said he was committed to supporting Stokes. “Ben did a lot for me as vice-captain, so now it’s my turn to return the favour. It was tough getting back into the team after being the leader. I didn’t want to get in his way or interfere, but I wanted him to know I was there for him,” Root said.
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He knew he had a clear role under Stokes and stressed the importance of scoring runs. “I realised scoring runs was key. I wanted to make sure I could impact games with my batting. If I followed his lead as a former captain it sends a good message to everyone in the team,” he said.
Root also praised the good vibes created by Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, this is the best time of his career. “It’s been the most enjoyable time of my career. The way we play and the team atmosphere has been great. Ben and Brendon have done a brilliant job and it’s been a lot of fun,” he said.
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Currently 5th on the all-time Test run-scoring list with 13,006 runs, Root is the top scorer in the world and closing in on Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 15,921 Test runs.
