Joe was 17. He wanted me to bowl at him as quickly as possible so I hit him everywhere. He just laughed and said: "You didn't get me out!"

YOU can never say for sure that a young cricketer is going to make it at the very highest level.

- RICHARD EDWARDS

But Joe Root's former coach and mentor at Yorkshire. Kevin Sharp, believed it was odds-on young Joe was destined for greatness as soon as he clapped eyes on him.

A batting session with the then teenager in a dark sports hall at the Three Ws Oval in Barbados merely confirmed it.

"I think Joe must have been about 17 at the time," said Sharp, who watched Root become the leading Test run-scorer in English cricket history in Multan last week.

"Yorkshire were on a pre-season tour of the Caribbean and he came and found me in the sports hall behind the ground and told me he wanted to play Test cricket.

"He basically asked me to throw balls at him as quickly as I could - he wanted me to try and knock his block off.