Joe Root targets a century in final Test against Sri Lanka
England's current player of the year has made a habit of falling short
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Not much has gone wrong for Joe Root in the past 12 months. However, England’s current player of the year is looking to kick his annoying habit of failing to convert half-centuries into three-figure scores when the final Investec Test against Sri Lanka starts at Lord’s on Thursday.
Root described his last dismissal against the Sri Lankans in the second Test at Durham as a “car crash”, the Yorkshireman chipping a simple chance to cover when well set on 80.
It was the 11th time since the start of last summer Root has fallen for a score between 50 and 99 in Tests. Over his whole career, England’s star batsman has converted just nine of his 29 50-plus Test scores into hundreds – a habit that he is hoping to arrest at Lord’s this week.
“I should have a lot more hundreds, probably double if you look at the amount of fifties,” he admitted. “You’re always striving to get better and it’s an area that has been very frustrating for me because I am playing well and contributing quite consistently.
“But you don’t win games with 80s and 70s. So you want to make sure you cash in when you get those opportunities. Yes, of course, in an ideal world you go on and make 17 or 18 hundreds out of those fifties I’ve made but it doesn’t always work like that.
“There’s been a few decent deliveries in there but mainly it’s been batsman error so it’s area that needs to be addressed.
“This week I’ll just have to make sure if the opportunity arises that history doesn’t repeat itself.
“It’s an annoyance I want to put right and make sure over the rest of the summer if I get in and pass 50 I’m not throwing it away.
“I feel like my game’s in a good place and if anything I’m slightly complacent at times for the odd ball. Sometimes you get away with it and it can go unnoticed and sometimes it catches up with you and you’re made to look very silly.
“When you get in you want to make sure it’s a big score. Hopefully if I get myself in a position like that this week I’ll really make it count and go on and make a big, big score.”
That’s exactly what Root did against Sri Lanka at Lord’s two summers ago when, in his first Test back after being dropped for the final match of England’s 5-0 Ashes whitewash in Sydney the previous winter, he scored an unbeaten double hundred.
Root has been on a stellar run of form ever since, averaging 66.60 in Test cricket over the past two years.
“It was my first game back in the team so you want to make sure you cement your place and you start the summer as you mean to go on,” he says.
“I had a point to prove, not just to everyone else but more importantly to myself that I can play at this level.
“It was very important and I look back at that and think it was a massive stepping stone for me. Proving to myself more than anything I can score big runs.”
Nick Compton is one player who would snap Root’s hand off for a chance to just pass 50. That’s something the Middlesex batsman has failed to do even once this summer and, with his place on the line, England’s No3 needs big runs at Lord’s this week to prove to everyone he has what it takes to cut it at Test level.
“Traditionally Lord’s is a very good place to bat and score runs, it’s Nick’s home ground and he’s got a point to prove,” said Root. “It’s be great to see him go out there and put in a match-winning performance, which he’s more than capable of doing.”
Root was also fulsome in his praise of his captain Alastair Cook, who became the first Englishman to pass 10,000 Test runs during his side’s series-sealing win at Durham last week.
It’s a target that Root, currently with 3486 Test runs to his name, says he can only dream of.
“That’s a hell of a lot runs isn’t it?” he said. “He’s been awesome for 10 years or more now and to even be in side consistently for that amount of time is an unbelievable achievement.
“But to score as many runs and as many hundreds as he has and been captain and won as many games as he has is ridiculous.
“Yes, they are dreams down the line. You want to score millions of runs and thousands of runs for England but if you don’t do it here and now what’s the point in looking five years down the line?
“More importantly I want to get a big score in this game and take it into the Pakistan series later this summer.”
Few would bet against Root doing just that such has been his red-hot form since that last Lord’s Test against Sri Lanka.
TAG: Investec is the title sponsor of Test match cricket in England. For more on Investec private banking, visit investec.co.uk/banking
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