England captain Joe Root is in excellent form at the moment, having scored a magnificent 180 not out in the second Test against India at Lord's.
In the first Test of the series, Root scored another hundred, making 109 in England's second innings at Trent Bridge.
During England's tours of Sri Lanka and India earlier this year, Root also scored a massive 186 and two double hundreds.
In fact, in 2021 Root has scored a remarkable 1,244 runs at an average of 69.11, 881 runs more than England's next best batsman.
Speaking on Sky Sports, former England skipper Michael Atherton stated that Root's "golden of run of form" was "a reward for some incredible work" that he did during the first coronavirus lockdown.
Atherton said: "I think this is a reward for some incredible work he did in lockdown. It came at a time when he was 29 and had already had a fantastic career.
"But it just gave him an opportunity to rest, where he's said 'I've got the second half of my career to come and I can go from being a very, very fine player to one of the all-time greats'.
"He asked the analyst to send him every dismissal from the last five years or so, looked at it in great detail and tried to work out where he could go from there. He's reaping the rewards of that.
"He's made a slight technical adjustment now, with that back leg going straight back. That made him less vulnerable to the lbw when the ball is straight.
"For three years, he's not been quite at his best at home against seam and pace bowling, but now he's in a golden run of form that started at the beginning of 2021 when England went to Sri Lanka.
"He showed all his great skill on the dust bowls in Asia and now he's got his very best game together in more seam-friendly conditions here at home."
Atherton also asserted that Root no longer looks "burdened by expectation and pressure" and is no "playing with great freedom".
"The lovely thing is how he doesn't seem burdened at all by the weight of captaincy and expectation at the moment," he added.
"Think of the context of this innings - he came in on a hat-trick ball when India had just got two in two.
"He's the captain who put India into bat and they've put on 127 for the first wicket and made 364 - not a huge score but certainly more than you'd want when you put a side in. Those kind of things impact on you.
"But what he's managed to do brilliantly is compartmentalise it all and put the captaincy to one side.
"He's Joe Root the batsman, not Joe Root the captain burdened by expectation and pressure and he's playing with great freedom."
