England vs Australia: Joe Root on captaincy, Ashes cricket and the future

Joe Root started day four of the first Ashes Test by trying to ramp Australia captain Pat Cummins

Joe Root has spent about 487 hours of his life batting in Test cricket. He has faced nearly 20,000 deliveries and scored more than 11,000 runs.

Despite a record that could (and let's stress the 'could') leave him as the most prolific run-getter the game has ever seen, his canon of memorable shots will always include one he didn't even lay a bat on.

Root's attempted reverse-scoop at Pat Cummins on the fourth morning of the first Ashes Test might eventually go down as one of the famous dot balls in Test history, but the outcome was not nearly as important as the intent.

"It wasn't necessarily about making a statement to Australia, it was more about making a statement to everyone in the ground about how we want to go about things," Root tells BBC Sport.

"Obviously there's an element of risk to it, but I just felt that as long as I didn't get out, it didn't matter what happened."

The reverse-scoop (the Roop?) has become a feature of Root's post-captaincy, Ben-Baz-era batting.

It is pre-meditated. On this occasion, Root was not out overnight, meaning the longest possible time to pre-meditate.

"I decided to play it about 10 minutes before I went out," says Root. "I sat next to Stuart Broad and across the room from Ollie Pope.

"We'd had a tricky period the night before and we felt like we had an opportunity to throw momentum back in our favour."

It is a week on from the reverse-scoop and England's heart-stopping defeat at Edgbaston. On a sunny day at Lord's Root has been preparing for the second Test with some shuttle runs on the outfield and a long hit in the nets.

He is sitting in front of the pavilion, still with his pads on. As he speaks, Australians are filing past.

Nathan Lyon, an old team-mate from Adelaide club cricket, and Usman Khawaja, whom Root congratulated on the field after his hundred in the first Test, try to distract him. It is a sign of how well liked and respected he is.

His own hundred in Birmingham, a masterful 118 not out on the first day, was Root's first in Ashes cricket for eight years, a time that spanned his entire spell as captain.

The last Ashes, a 4-0 defeat in Australia under a cloud of Covid restrictions, was in the dying embers of Root's reign. This ton was a cathartic achievement for Root, one he described as a "weight" lifted.

"That was a really tough tour. It was a sub-standard performance," he says.

"You pride yourself on performing in those big games, the big moments. I feel like I wasn't able to do it on that occasion. A lot of people went through a lot of difficulties around that time and it's nice to be able to pay a bit back."

Joe Root has scored six centuries at Lord's

Lord's was where Root had his first Test as captain, against South Africa in 2017, and his first as an ex-captain, against New Zealand last summer. He marked both games with hundreds.

It was after his ton in defeating the Black Caps, before England had Bazballed anyone, that Root revealed his relationship with the captaincy had become "unhealthy". In his last 17 matches at the helm, England won just once.

"I've left that behind me now," he says. "It was something I was proud and honoured to get the chance to do. I can sit here and safely say I gave it absolutely everything I could. I'm very proud of that."

Root's 64 Tests in charge is more than any other England captain, leading them to a record 27 wins. He also presided over the most defeats too - 26 of them.

If leadership legacies are defined by Ashes results, he struggles. Of the five men to captain England 15 times or more against Australia, Root's total of two wins is the lowest.

Still, there is a sense that Root often took on the Aussies with one arm tied behind his back.

In 2017-18 he was without the talismanic Ben Stokes because of the Bristol incident, at home in 2019 there was the comedown from winning the World Cup, the return to Australia in 2021-22 was so heavily affected by Covid precautions that Stuart Broad has declared it a "void" series.

Root being Root - and he genuinely is one of the most likeable, humble and down-to-earth players in the game - makes no excuses.

"Life will throw different things at you and you try to manage that as best you can," he says. "We certainly did that as best we could.

"You can look back and think 'what if', but you get what you get and try to make the best of those situations."

For many captains, when results go south the batting follows. Root bucked the trend.

In his first 97 Tests, he averaged 48 and scored 17 hundreds. In the next 34, a period encapsulating the one win in 17 and the three defeats in 14 under Stokes, he has averaged almost 59 and racked up 13 tons.

To Root, a man who seems to love scoring runs more than anyone else possibly could, it was batting that provided solace from the pressures of being skipper.

"There were periods when I was captain, batting wasn't necessarily fun, it was about going out there to have some peace and quiet, having some time to myself," he reveals.

"It was a time to shut off from the rest of the world, to just have me and the cricket ball. It worked."

As for the increased output from his blade, Root is grateful for the help of another former England captain.

"Nasser Hussain gave me some information about modes of dismissal in different periods of my innings and how to manage my game," says Root.

"It's nice to know there are people out there willing to help, even though it can seem like they are trying to rip your game apart on occasions.

"He went out of his way to make an impact in my career and I was grateful, because it was a big help."

At 32, Root already has a Test career that is closing in on 11 years.

In that time, he has missed only two of the 133 Tests England have played - one when he was taken out of Mitchell Johnson's firing line at the end of the 2013-14 Ashes, the other for the birth of his second child in 2020. Never has he been forced out of a match through injury.

He has more Test runs than anyone currently playing the game, and, given the likely future of the longer form, more runs than anyone else who will ever play it.

With 11,168 runs to his name and time on his side, he is probably the last viable contender to overtake Sachin Tendulkar's all-time Test record of 15,921.

At the rate of his purple patch from the past two and a bit years, 98 runs per Test, Root would need another 49 matches to overhaul the Little Master.

In the ongoing Future Tours Programme, England have 41 Tests scheduled between now and the beginning of the 2027 home summer. By that time, Root will be 36, still younger than Broad's current 37 and much the junior of James Anderson's soon-to-be 41.

"I'm not a numbers guy," says Root.

"Sport can be funny and very fickle. You have to respect the game and work hard. You have to enjoy every minute of that journey.

"I feel like the most exciting and best years are still ahead of me. At 32, it's really exciting to be able to say that."