Let’s have some love for Joe
2nd all time test runs
Most test runs for England
Most test centuries for England
Most tests as England captain
Most test wins as England captain
Most test catches as a fielder
And who can forget his five for ten
I’m so glad to have lived in the era of Root and Anderson. Can he get the 2,500 to pass Tendulkar? Well he’s still only 34.
Remarkable guy.
If he’d already passed the landmark, even given his mild and mellow temperament, I suspect he’d call it a day but… hey… if he keeps playing like he is, why not carry on.
He’s pretty much the first name on the team-sheet as it is!
His conversion rate is back to his young days before he became captain … I think it’s about 50% now
the man is a marvel, the one wicket that every other team prizes higher than anyone else’s and by all account a bloody decent bloke. he is married to the daughter of my old PE teacher so by 6 degrees of separation I have played on the same team as him!!
He lives just down the road from my Aunt & Uncle in my home town of Sheffield and they have seen him a few times in the local chippy. Apparently very friendly and down to earth.
I think it may be a stretch to claim that by 6 degrees of separation, I have shared fish & chips with him !
I can top that as he lives on the same street as me….lovely family, he’s often seen at the local padel court which he co-owns.
Trivia point – I used to work with his dad many moons ago.
I think his form this winter will largely define England’s hope’s of regaining
The Ashes.
Impressive. I shall have to pop round to see you next time I visit – Joe, yourself and I can meet at the Pontus Fish Bar…….
Yeah…nah
? Can’t argue with the figures, can you? And, as far as one can tell, a thoroughly decent bloke?
Yeah …. but he plays for the English team.
Can’t argue with that either.
Steve Smith is two years older and 3,000 runs behind but with a better average. It will be fascinating to see how they both do in The Ashes, each of them the key wicket for each side.
Yeah but Steve Smith plays for the Australian team .
Can’t argue with that
We were in Pizza Express in Sheffield one lunchtime last summer and he was in there with his young lad. My cricket-loving, PE teacher daughter approached him as they were leaving to congratulate him on – well, on being Joe Root I suppose – and reported back that he was indeed lovely, charming and modest. In addition he apparently smelt amazing! His only fault is that he’s a Blade, but nobody’s perfect.
For me, his only fault is that he’s from Yorkshire. 😉
To his credit, he doesn’t trumpet the fact at all. Most unusual.
He also called out Shannon Gabriel for alleged gay slur. A thoroughly decent man.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-13/joe-root-praised-for-calling-out-shannon-gabriel/10806708
Top man
Always nice when someone very talented, very successful, very famous and no doubt very rich can combine this with being a decent person. He’s also a joy to watch, not just a run-making machine.
Spare a thought for his brother Billy Root (good name – could have been plying his trade in the 30s) currently slumming it in Glamorgan’s 2nd XI. Can’t be much fun being a professional cricketer when your brother is Joe Root.
Probably helps
There are not many such examples to the up and coming generations but Joe Root is I feel.
Such a good bloke he’s spent his professional career at Yorkshire, for years as one of the senior pros, but mysteriously never witnessed any of the abuse inflicted on Azeem Rafiq.
He is a Yorkshire CCC player but has spent most of his career as a centrally contracted England player, so in reality he hardly ever plays for, trains with, or even spends any time with, Yorkshire CCC. Yorkshire are lucky if he gets to play one match a season for them, and even that is unusual. He is permanently away doing all of that with the England squad. The only times he plays at Headingly is when England are playing there. So it is not at all impossible that he saw none of the abuse that Rafiq suffered.
A petulant display from England at the end – India had every right to bat on for Sunder’s century.
This is what has put me off cricket a fair bit, petulance “sledging”, win at all cost mentality, plus the drunken rabble that is the “barmy army”. It’s just a silly game in the end.
Speaking here as someone who played for 20 odd years, and was a keen watcher both in person and on TV.
Haven’t the England team decided that they’re going to be more aggro and sledge more and stuff? Doesn’t bode well for a civilised Ashes given the Australians just about invented sledging. The Barmy Army OTOH may be drunken but they can be hilarious and are generally pretty good natured – well they have been at the tests I’ve been to.
They were humorous on Sunday at the last day of the Test. And slightly less annoying than the lone Aussie behind me with his “Who’s got the Ashes?” song which, impressively, he managed to sing for the last couple of hours as the match meandered to a draw. No-one bit though so finally he gave up.
I fear for our bowling attack over there.
Archer will probably bowl young Sam Constas first ball if his Windies form continues. But I hope the young lad makes a shitload of runs in the four Sheffield Shield matches he’s got to prove himself.
I was at both Saturday and Sunday’s play and it was a tough watch albeit proper old school cricket with the Indians dug in and the English bowling attack toothless with the exception of Stokes who seemed to be suffering from about 4 different injuries. Archer was barely able to stir himself (tired apparently) and Dawson toiled away with barely any glimmer of a chance. I understand he should be useful holding up an end when we head out for the Ashes though.
The last 20 minutes was a bit daft though.
Archer and Wood are 2 luxuries England can barely afford. Neither seem to be able to play a third of a given season. Archer is fine when he’s taking wickets but he was “tired”? Really?
Billy was at Notts for a while. A very decent cricketer, but reminds me of the following sledge…
Aussie star Mark Waugh asked Englishman James Ormond, “What are you doing out here? There’s no way you’re good enough to play for England.”
To that, he replied – “Maybe not, but at least I’m the best player in my own family”