When we remember one of modern cricket’s finest ever batters to have embraced the game, we tend to get caught up in his endlessly arresting web of strokeplay and the obvious talent. But what we also ought to remember each time when we pay an ode to the living legend that is Joe Root is the sheer longevity with which he’s presided over a career with unfettered excellence and calm disposition. It’s easy to score runs over a period of time especially when you are experiencing a purple patch. You tend to score heftily across two or three series and form notwithstanding, maybe for over half a calendar year.
But in Joe Root’s phenomenal success, lies the success of test cricket. Courtesy its most cherished chapter- Longevity.
No randomspeak this!
It was December 2012 when he first arrived in proper international red ball cricket making his debut for England against India and immediately scored a half century.
Even today, you remember his Ashes hundreds. You remember the grit shown whether at The Oval, Perth, Adelaide or Lord’s. But how many of us remember that in his maiden Test outing in an English shirt, Joe Root stood his ground for no fewer than 229 odd deliveries scoring 73?
Most recently, he scored a fluent 46 against the visiting New Zealand Test side in the ongoing series’ Second Test and in so doing has now emerged just 2 shy, just two runs shy of breaching 14,000 international runs.
For someone who is calm, focused, methodical and hell bent on serving the English cause just as he was nearly a decade and a half back- it must be said, time comes to stand still when it collides with one of the greatest ever exports of England to the great game of cricket.
If cricket is a gentleman’s game, then Joe Root- 41 centuries in Tests, 111 international half centuries along with 20 ODI hundreds- is that gentleman.
In Joe Root’s case, it’s not just the solidly and patiently collected runs that matter. That’s half the tale. It’s the fact that he’s focused just as hard for each of the 33, 627 deliveries faced as on date that tells the overall tale of a batting great. A purist unsullied by the changing vagaries of the game! A calm crusader who loves runs. A gentle giant whose reluctance for theatrics belittles those around whom who seem to find in acts and histrionics an unnecessary extension of their game.
And now, this giant is just 1923 runs away from the iconic Sachin Tendulkar’s overall tally of runs, which at 15,921 seemed at point endlessly mountainous to climb. But then when has Joe Root not been an avid climber, albeit one who doesn’t chase records or greatness?
