Joe Root delivers timely reminder of his enduring class at the start of critical year for his captaincy

SAM MORSHEAD: England had not won in Galle until 2018; now they look so much at home that they might consider sticking their name on the utilities bill, and that is down largely to the fluidity and focus of their captain

Sri Lanka v England: 1st Test scorecard

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Over the past 18 months, Joe Root’s stock as an elite batsman has dipped.

Century-less in 2020, with a two-year Test average of less than 39, his once widely accepted place among the game’s big four has come under increasing scrutiny. With the rise of Babar Azam and Marnus Labuschagne, and the form of Ben Stokes, so Root has dropped back into the peloton; the most recent ICC rankings have him 11th, six years after topping the charts.

Focus has fallen on his conversion rate, in some quarters obsessively so, and the captaincy has at times appeared to weigh a little heavily.

As 2021 dawned, then, Root would have known the commentary that would come hand in hand with the Auld Lang Syne chorus: the disparate challenges facing his team in Sri Lanka, India, at home, and in Australia; the sheer volume of cricket to be played; his own form; and his leadership credentials. 

And yet through all that noise, with everything aforementioned to consider, Root produced this innings; an innings of balance, control and poise; a lesson in enduring class; a reminder of everything he is to his team.

His 168 not out - England’s highest individual score in Sri Lanka - has taken his side to a position in this game where defeat is no longer an option. Despite losing the best part of half a day to rain, the tourists still lead by 185 with three to go and six first-innings wickets in the bank.

England had not won on this ground until 2018; now they look so much at home that they might consider sticking their name on the utilities bill, and that is down largely to the fluidity and focus of their captain.

On a pitch which was threatening to turn square inside the first session of the match, Root negated an admittedly limited Sri Lankan attack with an innate calmness befitting of series’ behind-closed-doors status in coastal Galle. 

^{Joe Root made his 18th Test century on Friday}

Every shot was well considered and effectively executed, as if Root was very methodically explaining to the Sri Lankans precisely where they went wrong during their whirling dervish of a collapse on Thursday.

The home side lined up three spinners in familiar conditions on an accommodating surface, and Root treated them like net bowlers on a chilly April afternoon at Headingley, sliding onto the back foot to play the ball under his shoulders or leaning long down the wicket to stifle the spin.

Putting into practice Duncan Fletcher’s favourite assertion that just about any line and length is sweepable, Root peppered the legside, every easy single sapping Sri Lankan spirits just a little further.

He surpassed his previous best for runs via the sweep in a Test innings (37, in his last ton in Sri Lanka, in Pallekelle two and a half years ago), and manipulated creeping passivity in the hosts’ demeanour to rotate the strike with extraordinary ease. 

He and Dan Lawrence put on 173 in 43 overs, with Root hustling at a strike rate of 66: quite the feat for an Englishman in Sri Lanka, and underlining claims that he is the best player of spin that this country has produced).

Neither a lunch break spent unbeaten on 99, nor the additional pressure of shepherding a debutant through his first Test knock caused him any difficulty, and at just after ten past one local time he dab swept Dilruwan Perera to fine leg for the single he needed to reach his first hundred in 14 months.

The celebration was low key, to match the atmosphere, but the smile was back. And when Root smiles, runs generally flow.

Root now has 18 centuries in England whites, equalling the haul of Michael Vaughan. Vaughan paired that with 18 additional half-centuries; Root, of course, has 49.

^{Root finished the day unbeaten on 168}

By the time rain stopped play in the evening, Root was nine shy of 8,000 Test runs - an exclusive group currently occupied by just six Englishmen: Sir Alastair Cook, Graham Gooch, Kevin Pietersen, David Gower, Alec Stewart and Sir Geoffrey Boycott.

Should he get there on Saturday, and there is scant evidence to suggest the contrary, he will have reached the landmark faster than anyone bar Pietersen by games played. At 30 years and 16 days old, he will become the third youngest to do so of cricketers from any nation, behind only Cook and Sachin Tendulkar.

Of the men to have scored 7,000 or more runs for England, Root’s average remains superior to all bar the formidable Wally Hammond’s 58.

“Whenever we’ve spoken to Joe Root, have you ever seen a selfish streak in that young man? Never. It’s always about the team,” Nasser Hussain said, assessing an exceptional knock. 

“The one thing Graham (Thorpe, former England batting coach) has asked him is to be a bit more selfish.”

Hussain suggested that the introduction of Jacques Kallis into the England camp would have inspired the necessary selfishness in Root. If it has, and this is the result, 2021 might not prove to be quite as daunting after all.

All pictures courtesy of Sri Lanka Cricket