Joe Root was just 11 years old when he went to Headingley to watch the Indian Test cricket team in action. Big lads like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag were part of the Indian playing XI in that 2002 game. The wicket was juicy, and when Ganguly won the toss and decided to bat, the English experts were shocked. But then India made a massive 628/8d thanks to centuries from Tendulkar (193), Ganguly (128) and Dravid (148) and went on to win by an innings and 46 runs.
On day two, it got quite dark towards the close of play. The umpires however continued on with the game as Tendulkar and Ganguly put the English bowlers to the sword. Former England captain Geoffrey Boycott, who was doing commentary at that time, called their assault “murder in the dark”, alluding to Margaret Atwood’s famous novel.
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Root, who recently returned to his second stint as Test captain, reminisced about his Headingly outing. “India won the toss and batted first, and I watched one wicket all day. ‘It was Rahul Dravid (148) and Sourav Ganguly (128) who got a boatload of runs, and that’s one where Sachin got, I don’t know how much,” Root told Daily Mail.
‘It was a tough toil for the England bowlers, but that was my first experience of coming here with a local cricket club. It was with Rotherham Town, actually. And they took the Under 11s out to watch the game, and it was a great experience,” he added.
24 years on, Root is hot on Tendulkar’s heels in terms of becoming the highest run-getter in Test cricket. At present, he just needs 1.643 runs to overtake the Indian master blaster who also represented Yorkshire during his playing days. In December, Root, another Yorkshire stalwart, turns 36. Looking at his fitness and hunger for runs, it will take a naysayer not to back him to go past Tendulkar.
Root also praised his former batting coach Matthew Sharp, who oversaw his development from 12-21. The England captain explained how Sharp had a huge influence on his career. He said: “Huge role (Sharp played). He got hold of me when I was about 12 years old until 21, and very impressionable years of your playing career and of your life in general and having good people, good mentors, is so important.
“He was excellent for me. Very good technical coach, but also had a really good way in understanding of me as a person. He would be very patient at times. He understood the challenges that I was going to face. I was always very small for my age, and him being very aware of that, and at some point I grew up, my body would catch up with where I wanted to be as a player.
“I can’t thank him enough for the input that he had just managing me as, you know, not getting too emotional, understanding what was gonna be really important further down the line, just looking ahead at how can we get ahead of other players at a young age so that when physically you catch up with everyone else, you’re in a really good position.”
