Picture by Alex Whitehead SWPix.com. Joe Root is congratulated by Jonny Bairstow after scoring his maiden Test hundred, against New Zealand at Headingley in May 2013. He had made his Test debut the previous December.
“Scintillating, and I tell you what, it’s the first of many. He’s going to get a lot of hundreds, this young man. It was a remarkable performance on his home turf, and we’re seeing the fast emergence of a really special batting talent.”
The late Bob Willis was always straight to the point when he spoke on the popular Sky Sports Verdict show, on this occasion discussing Joe Root’s maiden Test Match hundred against New Zealand at Headingley in late May 2013.
“He smiled more in one day than I did in 90 Test Matches!”
The dry humour of former England fast bowler Willis, one of the heroes of Headingley 1981, shone through as he sat alongside host Charles Colville and the former New Zealand fast bowler Iain O’Brien.
They actually likened Root’s play off the back foot to that of former England captain Michael Atherton, with Willis going on to say: “Michael Atherton was named a future England captain when he was in the Lancashire side with his rosy cheeks, and it’s the same with Joe Root.
“He’s already captaining England Lions. The England captaincy legacy is stretched out before us.
“Another five years of Alastair Cook and then Joe Root for as long as he likes.”
Picture by Stu Forster/Getty Images. The late Bob Willis, pictured here alongside David Gower, was full of praise for Joe Root in 2013 whilst working for Sky Sports.
Root’s maiden Test hundred came in his sixth appearance, a fine 104 batting at number five. Aged 22 at the time, he came to the crease at 67-3, shared 79 for the fourth wicket with Ian Bell and then 124 for the fifth with Jonny Bairstow.
His county colleague contributed a well-made 64 to England’s day two 354 all out – there had been no play on day one due to the weather – and was at the crease when Root brought up his ton. England went on to win by 247 runs.
“They had a good understanding and obviously like one another a lot,” said Willis.
“What a cracking day for Yorkshire County Cricket Club.”
Such were the celebrations from the Headingley faithful when Root reached his hundred, led by the Western Terrace, rumour has it they could be heard across the city of Leeds.
Root had made his England debut, in a Test against India at Nagpur, six months beforehand, in mid-December 2012. He scored a polished 73 in a draw.
It came on the back of two full seasons of first-team cricket with Yorkshire, including a fabulous opener’s 222 against Hampshire in a Championship match on a tricky pitch at The Ageas Bowl in July 2012.
Picture by Indranil Mukherjee/Getty Images. Joe Root bats for England during his debut Test tour in India in late 2012.
“That innings was a massive part in my development as a top-order batsman,” Root recalled. “From that point onwards it gave me a lot of confidence knowing how to construct a long innings and gave me a base to look back on.
“If I ever feel out of nick or am unsure how to go about things I can always relate back to that. It was almost a bit of a launchpad.”
Root was quickly trusted by England, and their faith was rewarded with scores of 200 not out, 154 not out, 149 not out, 182 not out, 134 and 130 in his first three years as a Test cricketer.
Two of those came in the triumphant home Ashes series of summer 2015.
Willis’s prediction about Root’s captaincy future came true in February 2017, when he was appointed as Alastair Cook’s successor. He had been the Essex man’s vice.
No batter in world cricket had scored more than Root’s 4,594 runs since making his Test debut, as aforementioned, in December 2012. In the same period, only India captain Virat Kohli had scored more runs than Root in all forms of international cricket.
Root had been ranked as the world’s number one batter in Test cricket for the first time in August 2015.
Yorkshire’s in-house photographers SWPix.com created a collage of Joe Root through the years, up to 2015.
In all, he has held that position 12 times and counting to date.
A man with a sense of occasion, as his maiden Test ton at Headingley proved, Root’s first match as captain saw him post a stunning 190 from number four against South Africa at Lord’s in July 2017. His first coach at Yorkshire, Kevin Sharp, was in the crowd watching.
County colleagues Jonny Bairstow and Gary Ballance, both close mates, were in the England team.
England won by 211 runs.
Root would go on to captain England on 64 occasions across five years before stepping down in April 2022.
Of course there were challenges. The 4-0 Ashes defeat Down Under in the winter of 2021/22 when the world was under Covid restrictions stands out like a sore thumb in that regard.
But no other England captain has skippered more Tests than Root’s 65 to date – the latest came against New Zealand the Oval earlier this summer – and his haul of 27 victories is also a record. And with his recent return to the role, alongside Stephen Fleming as England’s new head coach, there’s plenty more where that came from.
Picture by Patrick Hamilton/SWPix.com. Joe Root during his first stint as England’s Test captain.
