Ashes Drop Hurt Me But I've Never Looked Back... Now For The Next level

Chris Stocks looks at the progression of the new England captain’s career and finds out exactly what Joe Root will bring to the role.

- Chris Stocks

If there’s one moment where Joe Root’s transformation from promising young batsman to England's new Test captain started, it was in Sydney on January 3, 2014.

That was when a 23-year-old Root was told by Alastair Cook, the man he succeeded as captain this week, he was not playing in the fifth and final Ashes Test.

The pain of that news proved a tipping point in Root’s career. He scored a double century in his first innings back in the side against Sri Lanka at Lord’s the following summer. He was then named one of Wisden’s five Cricketers of the Year for 2014. He has not looked back since and, as he sat fielding questions at Headingley on Wednesday in his first public outing in his new role, the transformation was complete.

Whether Root goes on to become a successful England captain is up to him. But everything that has happened in his career so far suggests he will rise to the challenge.

Root, reflecting on that career changing moment at the Sydney Cricket Ground just over three years ago, said: “I went back to the changing room and Cooky sat me down and said, ‘It’s a tough call but you are not going to play in this game’.

“I can’t remember what I did for the next hour. I was gone. I was an empty vessel for an hour.

“But then I was absolutely spewing. I was so angry and gutted because I had not scored runs, not because I thought I deserved to play.

“In my first Test back against Sri Lanka at Lord’s, I sat there waiting to bat and all I could think about was reliving Cooky telling me I was not playing in Sydney. I was using it as an inner motivation. I did not want that happening again.”