England skipper Joe Root will be gearing up for the challenges which lie ahead when his team battle the West Indies in their backyard and the batsman’s outrageous record against the Caribbean side could play a key role in the direction of the Test series.
Joe Root
Root, much like most of the players in the side except veterans like James Anderson and Stuart Broad, has not played that many games against the Windies, but the few times the right-hander has faced the Caribbean side in Tests, he has compiled a solid string of scores which could see the batsman looking to exploit his opponents.
This trip to the Caribbean will be Root’s first since 2015, but the remnants of his last visit could leave the Windies in a bad mental place should they allow him to tap into his form in the Caribbean. In the three games played in 2015, Root stroked 83, 59, 182* and 33 at a scary average of 89 plus.
Ironically, his top scores came at Barbados, Antigua and Grenada, which will be the same venues of this year’s series. Outside of the Caribbean, the Yorkshire batsman maintains a brutal record against the hosts as he averages a healthy 78 with scores of 136, 59 and 72 coming in English conditions.
In 2018, Root was among those who racked up close to 1000 Test runs in a calendar year and currently enters the Windies series with a staggering overall average of 50.44 with 41 fifties and 15 tons with 5 of them being 150-plus scores and a solitary career-best of 254.
The home team will be keen on identifying players who could single-handedly change the complexion of a match and Root, if there is no other in the team, is capable of being the difference-maker should he continue his outrageous batting form from last year.
England recently disposed of Sri Lanka in a whitewash 3-0 fashion and despite a classy 124 in the second Test, Root’s recent series was a bit mixed. Apart from his century, the 28-year-old had scores of 46, 7, 14 and 35; poor returns by his world-class standards. Playing in the West Indies and at venues where he had overwhelming success in the past could invoke Root’s love for batting in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, Root and his team will arrive in the Caribbean soon as they prepare for the 2-match tour series from January 17 before fine-tuning for the January 23 start of the Test series at the Kensington Oval, Barbados.
