Joe Root, the England batsman, said after an ‘eye-opening’ experience with the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League, he is ready to make the most of his opportunities in Twenty20 Internationals in the upcoming series against the Windies.
Root is crucial to England in Tests and one-day internationals, but hasn’t always enjoyed an extended run in the shortest format.
The Test captain is now ready to have another crack at the format in the T20I leg of the ongoing series in the Caribbean, even as the likes of Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler are rested.
Root’s workload has been well managed this time – he is not part of the Indian Premier League, unlike some of the other players – and he is pumped to be a part of a squad that has an “exciting couple of years” in store.
“Why did I not want to miss the T20 games? Because I love playing cricket for England, simple as that,” Root said. “And I’ve not had much opportunity to play T20 cricket in the last couple of years.
“I don’t want to miss out on opportunities to play when I’m fit and I feel I’m in a good place to help the side to win and be part of a squad that has a very exciting couple of years ahead of it.”
Root has played only 28 T20Is for England. In an effort to work on his T20 game, he was in Australia, between England’s tours to Sri Lanka and the Windies, to play in the BBL. It was an experience he called “a new adventure”.
Root didn’t get many runs under his belt – his highest score was 26 – but even so, he believes his T20 game developed in the tournament. “I’ve not played any franchise cricket before, so it was very eye-opening and I learned a lot about my own game,” Root said.
“It’s easy to come away from a tournament not having scored many runs and not saying I got something out of it. But genuinely I feel like there was a big development in that side of my game.
“More than anything, we’re looking at breaking the score down and how best to approach it. And how best to approach it with who you bat with at any given time. If that can transfer over into 50-over cricket as well, that will be fantastic.
“It feels like it has in a way. With those T20s coming up, it will be great to see some of that going into those games.”
The three-match T20I series start on 5 March in Gros Islet.
