Joe Root: England 'heading in the right direction' for regaining place as number one Test team
Joe Root believes becoming the best Test side in the world is once again a realistic possibility for England after overturning a 1-0 deficit to South Africa into a 2-1 lead.
It has been a complete turnaround for Root and his side after they lost the Boxing Day Test at Centurion which left his position as captain questioned seriously for the first time given it followed defeat in New Zealand and a failure to regain the Ashes.
But England have improved hugely over the past two weeks, capitalising on winning two important tosses, to completely turn the tables on South Africa. England fly to Johannesburg on Tuesday for Friday’s final Test completely on top and primed for a 3-1 series win on the back of their first innings victory overseas since the 2010-11 Ashes.
England are a long way from matching the features of Andrew Strauss’s team nearly a decade ago when they reached No 1 in the Test rankings and a place in the 2021 final of the Test championship appears highly unlikely given the strength of India and Australia.
But the stated aim after the World Cup win was to improve England’s Test performances and build a base for a team to become the best in the world and Root thinks they are now on their way.
“That’s the journey that we’re on. That’s what we’re planning to be,” he said. “But it’s not going to happen overnight, there’s going to be bumps in the road and we’re going to get it wrong on occasions especially with a young group of players. As long as the group is willing to learn and put it in time and time again - doing the things that aren’t necessarily the most flattering, the quite difficult things to do in Test cricket then that’s the sort of attitude you need consistently if you want to keep improving and want to get to number one in the world. If we can harness that and then take that and put that into our performances as well, like we did this week, then we’ll start to be more consistent.
“We’ve got a really clear way of how we’re trying to play the game. Everyone knows what the role is within the side and it’s about making sure that when you get your opportunity to affect the game you go and do it. We’ve executed that brilliantly in the last two games. This tour already the first three games we’ve taken wickets which is something which we’ve struggled with abroad in the past. But we’ve managed to find ways to do it here and that’s a big step forward for us.
"We’ve managed to make big contributions, big hundreds as well with the bat. There are a number of things we’ve looked to address and improve on, and we’re starting to see signs of that now. By no means are we the finished article, we’ve got a long way to go as a team but we’re heading in the right direction.”
