Picture by SWPix.com. Joe Root impressed right at the start of his time with Yorkshire.
In a couple of weeks, Joe Root will arrive through the Headingley gates as England’s Test Match captain, some 23 years on from his first introduction to life with Yorkshire as a scholar.
Root has accepted the offer of the England captaincy for the second time in his career and will take charge of the opening Test of a three-match series against Pakistan, starting on home turf on August 19.
A lot of water has gone under the bridge since a 12-year-old whipper snapper from Sheffield caught the eye of then senior men’s batting coach Kevin Sharp in the early 2000s.
Root is closing in on Sachin Tendulkar’s Test Match runs record of 15,921, he has won the Ashes, he has lost the Ashes, he’s a two-time County Championship winner with Yorkshire and is widely regarded as the best batter.
The story of Root’s first contact with Sharp, as a scholar with the county, is one well told. But it’s gold and, therefore, well worth revisiting as we chart the early stages of a special career.
“As club batting coach, what I used to do with a scholar as young as that was arrange for them to come to Headingley and get to know them,” said Sharp. “So Matthew, his dad, brought him up one evening after school.
“I’d arranged to meet Joe at about 5pm.”
When Root arrived in the Indoor School, Sharp was in the nets with a certain Anthony McGrath, a soon to be England player and a soon to be Yorkshire captain.
“Unbeknown to me, Joe and his dad had arrived a little bit early and were watching from the bar area of the Indoor School,” said Sharp.
“When I got to meet Joe, we went to chat in the office. I was asking about his game and what he was good at and not so good at. It was like talking to an adult, he could have been 25-year-old.
Pix: Ben Duffy/SWPix.com. Yorkshire’s then men’s batting coach Kevin Sharp was the first to introduce Joe Root to life at Headingley.
“I remember thinking very clearly ‘If you can bat as well as you can talk, you’re going to be good’.
“We then had about half an hour left, so I asked whether he wanted to do anything in the nets’. He said ‘yes, please, I want the same session Anthony McGrath’s just had’.
“Now, that was quite an intensive session. I was throwing a new ball at Mags, we had set up a game situation, and I had put cones out for slips fielders and gully, short-leg, etc.
“If you can picture it, he’s smiling away and looking at me – and he looks right into your eyes. I said ‘I can’t do that because I’ll hurt you’.
“He looked at me again, smiled and said ‘I’ll be alright’.
“Anyway, this got my beans going. I was thinking ‘what the hell’s going on?’
“I’d never experienced anything like it.
“So I told him to get all his protective equipment on, his helmet, chest guard, box, inside thigh guard, the lot because I’m coming for you. He just said ‘right, good’.
“Anyway, after I’d set it up, I said ‘right Joe, you’ve asked for this, and I’m not going to be your friend. Do you understand?’ He smiled, nodded and said ‘that’s fine’.
“So I run in with this new ball, and I could throw then as well. But he’s playing beautifully. It was clear he could play as well as talk.
Picture courtesy of Kevin Sharp. Kevin in the Headingley nets with a young Joe Root.
“Then, that little voice in my head said ‘bowl him a bouncer’. The other voice said ‘I can’t do that. If I hit him on the head, I’ll be in trouble’.
“I thought ‘no, sod it, I’m going to let him have one’.
“It was a beauty, just clipping his grille. I followed through and stared at him. But he just looked at me, smiled and nodded and said ‘ooh, that were a good ball’. It was priceless.
“After we’d finished, I was blown away. I was adamant we’d found something special.
“I went upstairs to Ian Dews, our Academy director, who was in his office. I said ‘I’ve had this little Joe Root in. I’m going to make a statement here – he’ll open the batting for Yorkshire one day’.”
Sharp was right.
Root, a product of Sheffield Collegiate, did open the batting for Yorkshire.
Having come through the age-groups, Academy and second team at Yorkshire, he made his first-team debut in a Pro40 League game against Essex at Headingley on September 27, 2009.
Picture by Vaughn Ridley/SWPix.com. Joe Root in action against Essex in September 2009, on his Yorkshire first-team debut.
It was the final game of the season, Yorkshire won it, and Root scored a measured 63 off 95 balls having opened the batting with Andrew Gale.
McGrath was captain, Jonny Bairstow was in Yorkshire’s team, so too Adam Lyth and Rich Pyrah. All remain at Headingley as either players or coaches.
Sir Alastair Cook opened the batting for Essex that day.
Surprisingly, Root’s next competitive match for Yorkshire was until the opening game of the 2011 summer, a County Championship match away against Worcestershire at New Road. He batted at three and scored nought in the first innings and 21 not out in the second.
Later that summer, which unfortunately ended in relegation, Root – aged 21, scored a superb 160 in a Championship draw against Sussex at Scarborough from number three in the order.
The CricketArchive website records the fact he had already scored 11 centuries with the white rose on his chest up to that point, for teams such as the Under 17s, the Academy and the second team.
But this was different.
A career for the ages was up and running!
