Picture Credit: Twitter
Former England captain Joe Root played a gem of an innings in the fourth innings of the 1st Test against New Zealand at Lord’s. Root’s unbeaten 115 helped England beat New Zealand by five wickets and bring the first win in the last ten matches. In the process Root also reached a massive landmark in his Test career. The 31-year-old entered the 10K club as he became only the second English batter after Sir Alastair Cook to score 10,000 Test runs.
While Root is breaking all the batting records, his stint as England’s Test captain ended on a bitter note. Root had to relinquish himself from captaincy duties after England’s 1-0 series defeat in the Caribbean in March, which came on the heels of a disastrous 4-0 loss against Australia in the Ashes. Notably, Root finished his captaincy stint with 27 wins in 64 Tests.
Talking about the same, Root explained why he decided to step down as England Test captain. The 31-year-old revealed that captaincy started taking a toll on his mind and it felt like an unhealthy relationship. "It had become a very unhealthy relationship, to be honest - the captaincy and me," Root told reporters after his heroics at Lord’s.
"It started to really take a bad toll on my own personal health. I couldn't leave it at the ground any more; it was coming home. It wasn't fair on my family, on people close to me, and it wasn't fair on myself either,” added Root.
I will do everything to help Ben turn it around: Root
The star batter further talked about how determined he is to help his successor; Ben Stokes turn the fortunes of the team around. Root said that he is excited to do everything in his capacity to help Ben Stokes.
"I had thrown everything at it and I was determined to help turn this team around but I realised over that time at home that it would have to be in a different way," added Root. "I'm very excited to do that now and to do everything I can to help Ben really turn this team around."