Joe Root is like a kid at Christmas as the start of the ICC Men’s World Cup approaches.
“I’m just really wanting the tournament to start now,” the Yorkshire star told yorkshireccc.com.
“It’s felt like forever coming from the start of this season, having played those two Championship games.
“I almost just wanted us to roll straight into that tournament from there.
“I’m very much looking forward to it. It’s a great opportunity. It feels like everything has fallen together at the right time. Now it’s just about riding that bit of luck if we get it, to perform as well as we have done and bring the whole thing together.
“Hopefully we can also inspire a new generation.
“We saw that happen in 2005 with the Ashes, and we have a great opportunity with hosting a World Cup and playing the way we have to do something very similar.”
England’s freewheeling style of play has brought them impressive result after impressive result, mostly recent a home success against Pakistan.
They are ranked as the world’s number one side and seen as favourites to claim only a second global title after the 2010 World T20 in the West Indies.
“We’ve earned that favourites tag with the way we’ve played over the last year to year and a half in particular,” said Root.
“We’ve played some strong cricket, and it does give us a huge amount of confidence knowing that we go into the tournament on home soil as the number one ranked team in the world.
“Of course you have to live up to that, but that’s what you try and do every day.”
“We want to have a successful campaign, and we feel like we’re in a really good position to go and give the best account of ourselves as a team because of the way we’ve been playing as a team in the recent past.”
