Cricket World Cup 2019: Joe Root’s modesty unable to hide relentless desire to become one-day great after stunning display vs West Indies
The England Test captain proved his versatility with a clever bowling display before a match-winning century at the Ageas Bowl
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Your support makes all the difference.It was a day where everything went Joe Root’s way. England were against the West Indies’ best partnership of the World Cup so far and unable to dent Nichloas Pooran or Shimron Hetmyer’s steady progress. To make matters worse Jason Roy was forced off with a hamstring injury early on and things threatened to further unravel.
With Adil Rashid struggling to make a breakthrough during the middle overs it was something of a surprise when Eoin Morgan tossed the ball to Root and called for the part-time off-spinner to see what he can do.
He did not expect the ball to be coming his way, nor did he anticipate what happened next.
West Indies quickly collapsed from 144 for three to 212 all out as a result of Root breaking an 84-run fourth wicket partnership that threatening to make the match in Southampton a little tighter than England may have first thought when they won the toss and put the West Indies into bat.
First Hetmyer fell after striking one straight back into Root’s grateful hands before Jason Holder presented the England Test captain with an even easier catch not too long after.
“I probably burgled them rather than out-skilled them,” admitted Root, who could have been slightly more boastful after taking two wickets for 27 off five overs, oh, and scoring a match-winning century in the second innings to win the two points and restore England’s self-assurance after a previous defeat against Pakistan.
Root is arguably one of the best Test players and edged closer to the top of the pile in the one-day game with a standout performance at the Ageas Bowl.
He has regularly admitted he must focus on his own game instead of getting caught up in the swashbuckling six-a-minute entertainment that some of his teammates often put on, and it’s through his modesty that Root has looked at the areas of his game he wants to improve to make him as valuable to this team as possible.
“When you lack ability you’ve got to find different ways of contributing and I’ve been working hard at trying a few different variations and trying to make it more difficult for someone just to stand there and smack me out the park,” he said, revealing that his two wickets were no accident. “It’s nice to see it pay off.”
Root, who was moved to open the batting in Morgan’s absence through a back injury, could have looked at his game and been pretty happy with how he is as a player, a strong batsman, leader and role model to his teammates. However the pursuit of perfection and fear of being underprepared by bringing substandard performances to the table forced one of the best batsman in the world to work on his bowling.
“I’m just trying to be as unpredictable as possible and just try and get into a game with each batter and work out roughly what I think I’m going to do and play it that way rather than out-skill anyone,” he added, further playing down his achievement.
His charming modesty in the face of incredible achievement shone through again when he almost went red with embarrassment when prompted to talk about his century off 106 balls that took him above Shakib Al Hasan and David Warner as the tournament’s leading run scorer.
“I feel like I’m playing alright. I don’t feel like I’m playing exceptionally well at the moment,” he said. “I’ve still got loads of things that I want to keep working on, getting better and improving.
“It’s not about how many runs you score and being the one that stands out in terms of individual accolades, it’s about building those substantial partnerships that win you games and us collectively getting the job done.”
For Root, taking the shine away from the team and onto him personally is a sign that he is good enough and perhaps means there is no immediate requirement to seek drastic improvement. In his eyes, this what he is always desperate to avoid as he uses modesty to disguise his relentless drive to better himself and become one of the best one-day players on the planet.
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