It was a day when England relied on their ‘grandad’ to get them over the line. That cheeky nickname dished out to Joe Root, still 33 years young, by fellow Yorkshireman Harry Brook, is enough to make most of us feel ancient.
But the calmness and composure with which Root played in the face of testing conditions and a manful Sri Lankan attack to steer England to victory on Saturday was a gentle reminder that you can’t put a price on experience.
The opening match of the series, after all, was Root’s 144th Test. That’s 92 more than the next most experienced player in the side, Chris Woakes.
And while there is no dearth of talent among England’s batting young guns – as proven by Jamie Smith’s stylish maiden century in the first innings – the absences of captain Ben Stokes and Zak Crawley have left a void of experience in making Test runs at international level.
That’s where Root and his 12,131 Test runs amassed all over the world prove particularly invaluable. He’s been there, seen it and done it, time after time.
Joe Root demonstrated his wealth of experience as England secured victory against Sri Lanka
Root steered his side to victory amid testing conditions at Old Trafford with 62 not out
And on what was a devilish Old Trafford surface which showed variable bounce right from day one, the elder statesman of the batting lineup used all his knowhow to play a quite brilliant hand of 62 to secure a five-wicket win.
‘I think the fact that everyone else is (younger), those guys they keep you young more than anything,’ said Root, who is now only 36 runs shy of Sachin Tendulkar’s record for the most fourth innings Test runs scored.
‘In this job you can be a bit like Peter Pan: you never really have to grow up, because you just think you’re the same age as the guy you’re batting with or the blokes around you.
‘I think that’s a really nice thing about it is we all get on really well with each other, even if we do take the mick out of each other. I mean, Harry Brook calling me grandad the other day… I mean 33 is a good effort to be a grandad!
‘I still feel pretty young, I feel like there’s a lot of cricket left in me and I’m just really enjoying it.’
You wondered whether Root had left some of the jovial side of his character behind after five testing years as captain. By the end of his reign, he admitted the role had taken a significant toll on him.
Those draining days must feel like a distant memory now, with Root still performing at the peak of his powers around an England team packed with fresh-faced twenty-somethings. Not least Brook, who challenged Root to a race as the pair chased the ball to the boundary in the first innings.
‘Oh my god it was so funny, he was just saying “don’t let me catch you!” as if we were playing a village game,’ Root explained.
Root has been affectionately nicknamed ‘grandad’ by fellow Yorkshireman Harry Brook
‘It’s great, you want it to be fun, you want to have a laugh out there and sometimes it’s nice to forget that there’s a bit on the line and you can just enjoy it and we were able to do that, which is a really good place to be.’
He may be grateful to his team-mates for keeping him young, but watching Root at close quarters on Saturday will have been a an invaluable learning experience for his younger colleagues.
Brook and Smith both played key roles in pursuit of the 205 runs required for victory, but neither were able to convert their promising starts to match-winning innings.
They are very much in their infancy of their Test careers and watched on from the non-striker’s end as Root expertly ground his way towards victory.
Aware of the dangers lurking in the turgid pitch and respectful of the tight lines delivered by Sri Lanka’s plucky attack, Root recognised it was not a day for crashing through the covers, as he usually does so beautifully.
He even suppressed the urge to wheel out his reverse ramp until the game had been all but won. It was somewhat ironic that the one time he deployed that shot he ended up hitting the ball into his own chest.
Instead, Root joked he had to channel his inner Nasser Hussain in an innings where it took him 95 deliveries to register his first boundary, before he ultimately struck the winning runs from his 128th ball.
‘That’s how you judge yourself as a player really, the moments you want to be there for is having won the game,’ said Root.
‘It was a very slow, turgid pitch, it lost all of its pace. The outfield was longer than the semi-rough at most golf courses I reckon as well, so that didn’t really help.
The former captain hailed England’s ability to ‘win ugly’ when the conditions require it
‘For us to be able to adapt and as well, almost win ugly, it’s not something we want to do consistently.
‘But to say that we’re able to do that and with a day to go still as well, with a lot of rain around, shows that we’re still living by all the principles that we want to, but we’re evolving and learning to manage the game better.’
It felt rather fitting, too, that in a week England paid tribute to the late Graham Thorpe, Root, one of his greatest proteges, proved to be the matchwinner. It was the kind of gutsy innings that would no doubt have made Thorpe proud.
