During one of his recent interviews, Joe Root revealed the complex feelings that were involved in his return to the line-up of the England Test side when he stepped down as a captain in favor of Ben Stokes. Root considered his initial years to be quite challenging and strange but still was able to redeem himself as a specialist batter after his service as a captain. He consciously intervened on being too bulldozing in intruding into the space of Stokes and yet he diverted his own energy into an amazing streak of runs. The result of this balance was fairly interesting: 3,117 runs to an average of 56.67 in the 36 Tests of Stokes command.
Joe Root’s Statement
“Ben (Stokes) did so much for me as my vice-captain, now it’s my turn to give a bit back to him. It was difficult and weird coming back into the team after being leader. I didn’t want to get in Ben’s way or step on his toes but I wanted him to know I was there to support him,” Root said.
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“I knew a big part of that was scoring runs. I wanted to make sure I could affect games with the bat and clearly if I was following his lead as a former captain it sends a strong message to anyone coming into the team or not as established as myself.”
“It has become the most fun time of my career. Playing the way we play, the environment that has been created. The job Ben and [head coach] Brendon [McCullum] have done has been fabulous and so much fun has come with it,” said Root.
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