Joe Root put England’s crushing three-day victory over West Indies in their first pink-ball Test down to their relentless approach and said having the country’s leading run-scorer, and now two highest wicket-takers, is something he does not take for granted as captain.
When Stuart Broad rearranged the stumps of Shane Dowrich during the second collapse by the tourists it summed up the riches at Root’s disposal, as the 31-year-old paceman passed Sir Ian Botham’s tally of 383 Test wickets to move to second in the charts behind Jimmy Anderson.
Anderson had claimed five across this astonishing 19-wicket day to nudge his career haul to eight short of 500, while Alastair Cook extended his England record to 11,568 runs with a man-of-the-match 243 in the first innings. Thus Root, who will take an unchanged squad to Leeds for Friday’s second Test, was understandably left purring.
“We are extremely privileged to play in the same team as them and what a place for young guys to learn, with great experience and so many runs and wickets behind them,” said Root, who was hailed as a genius by Cook after his 13th Test century on the first day.
“It was a fantastic team effort. We spoke about carrying on the hard work from the last series, take the mentality forward from our batting. I thought we did that extremely well. We were relentless with the way we bowled too. We got the ball to move sideways and the lads we have with the new ball, you always know they will create opportunities.”
On Broad’s milestone, which capped off a trademark burst of three for four in 11 balls, Root said: “Today is a great recognition of the hard work Stuart has done and that mentality he has to take his game forward, even though he’s achieved so much already. He is the sort of guy who wants to be involved. All three senior guys – the record-breakers – set the standard.”
After bringing up wicket No384, Broad held the glowing pink Dukes ball towards the England dressing room in acknowledgement of the work that their outgoing bowling coach, Ottis Gibson, has put into his game since the pair played together at Leicestershire in 2005.
Gibson will be a loss to the set-up when he moves on after this series to become the new head coach of South Africa. Broad said: “That was for him. Ottis has been a huge influence on me and knows my action better than I do. It is a very special day having the family here and taking a special wicket. But it is Test series wins you remember.”
Though England look well set for a second series win under Root this summer – they may remain imperfect but the gulf in caps and class here is considerable – whether it ends up a memorable one will depend on how this West Indies team react at Headingley. Their captain, Jason Holder, pointed to Jermaine Blackwood’s feisty 79 in their first innings and the bowling of Kemar Roach, who claimed two wickets on the opening day, as positives but could offer little more than platitudes on what was a grim day for the tourists.
When it was put to Holder, still only 25, that this does not look the easiest team to lead, he replied: “Definitely not, no. It’s not an easy job but I don’t think it’s impossible. We lacked consistency when we bowled and we didn’t put up any runs. But we have just got to believe, don’t drop our heads, stay in the game and fight.
“It is hard but we have to move on and we can’t dwell on it. We have to break down each performance of each player and see where they went wrong. The coaching staff will come up with some plans and ways we can move forward. But each player has to look themselves in the mirror and see where they can improve.”
