Though England are in the midst of a white-ball series in New Zealand, the focus of the cricketing world is on their upcoming tour to Australia for the much-anticipated five-Test Ashes series. A major share of the spotlight is on Joe Root, who has never scored a Test hundred in any of the past tours Down Under.However, Root sounded confident about the visitors’ prospects as he threw light on their preparations back home ahead of the series opener from November 21 in Perth. He also explained how his methods of getting ready ahead of a series have changed over the years and how he focused on the mental aspect of the game now.
“A lot of that prep’s already started back home,” Root said. “I think how I’d prepare now is different from how I would have done 10 years ago. A lot more mental. I’ve clearly played against a lot of their guys now. Know how they operate, know what they’re likely to try to bring to the series.
“I used to be very technical in how I prepared. I’d want to make sure that everything felt lined up and my feet were in the right place, my head was in the right place, whereas now I’m a little bit more concerned about how I’m looking at the game, how I’m going to approach different situations, whether that be the surface, whether that be different bowler types, different angles, and being able to manage those different angles when they come wide of the crease. Things like that.”
This will be the first time that England will travel to Australia after Brendon McCullum took over as the head coach of the side in May 2022. McCullum, along with captain Ben Stokes, went about redefining how the side played Test cricket with their ultra-aggressive Bazball approach.
It will be interesting to see how they fare with the much-talked-about brand in their ultimate test Down Under. Root has been in the form of his life in the new England setup after relinquishing his captaincy duties to Stokes.
In over three years under McCullum and Stokes, Root has amassed 3654 runs from 41 matches, the most by any player in the world during this period. The former captain has hit 14 centuries and 13 fifties during this period and averaged 58.00 with the bat.
But that is in stark contrast with the veteran batter’s record in Australia, as he averages 35.68 in three past tours without a century. However, Root was optimistic about his and the team’s fortunes in the highly anticipated Ashes summer.
“I look at it at this time and I’m in a completely different stage of my career. I’m no longer captain, I’m playing some really good cricket, and so are we. We’re playing in a really exciting way. We’ve got a great group of players that we can go there and hit them with different tools than we’ve had on previous tours, so when you look at it like that, it’s a really exciting prospect.
“Clearly, Australia are really good in their own conditions, with a great record at home, especially against us, but that’s the exciting bit right? There’s an opportunity there to do something a bit different and hopefully achieve something really special.”