To even consider he could ever hold England back sums up Root’s modesty.
Whether as young prankster, captain or back-in-the-ranks experienced pro, no batter has put more runs into England’s pot across all formats than the Yorkshireman.
Yet even Root has been unable to escape the issues that have dogged England’s batting in one-day internationals since their win in 2019.
Starved of opportunity, he averages 29.92 across the five and a half years and has not made a century.
At the World Cup in India he made three fifties but, like his team-mates, could not prevent England’s spiral.
“Anyone that says at any stage of their career ‘I have got no regrets’, ‘I wouldn’t change anything’, I think they are lying,” says Root, who also made double figures in all three innings in India this month but returned a highest score of 69.
“You would change certain things, but in terms of how I approach this tournament, no, not really. You know what’s happened has happened.”
Root was speaking shortly after England trained for the first time since arriving in Lahore.
He had two turns in the nets before he and fellow batter Harry Brook threw balls to each other on a strip of astroturf away from the rest of England’s group.
It is why Root disagrees so strongly with the suggestion England did not train hard enough in India – claims made by his former international team-mate Kevin Pietersen.
“They don’t come to training,” Root says. “They don’t see what we do and how we operate.”
But Root would not argue that England have struggled to find rhythm in their 50-over batting.
If Tests are about scoring as many runs as possible and T20s scoring as quickly as possible, ODIs sit somewhere in between.
Supporters encourage Root to ‘just play like Joe Root’ in a bid to regain his top form. He would say it is not quite as simple.
“I can’t think of any two innings that I have played that have been exactly the same,” he says.
“I think the art of batting is assessing the conditions in front of you, managing the situation that you’re presented with and consistently making good decisions under pressure.”
Root’s last ODI century came during a group-stage win over West Indies in the 2019 World Cup.
That day Eoin Morgan went in the back, Jason Roy twinged a hamstring, Chris Woakes batted at number three and England still won by eight wickets with 16.5 overs to spare.
Things have changed since.
McCullum and Buttler are leading the new era while attempting to follow on from arguably England’s greatest cricketing side. It was never going to be easy.
To some that constant comparison would weigh heavy.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a negative,” Root, one of five surviving World Cup winners in this squad, says.
“That team will have inspired a lot of this team. There’s a number of guys in this squad and in and around it that would have still been in school finishing their GCSEs or starting out on their journey as professional cricketers.”
The reduction of international ODIs – Root played 89 matches between the 2015 and 2019 World Cups but only 31 matches since – and the downgrading of England’s domestic competition continues to push against their pursuit to return to the top.
Root called for players to be given more regular opportunities in 2023 and while little has changed, he still thinks England can come again.
“It’s just going to take something different,” he says.
“There isn’t that opportunity to do that [play as regularly] nowadays but it doesn’t mean we can’t be as successful as that team.
“There’s just different challenges that we’re going to have to overcome.
“Can we find a way to speed that process up by having good, smart conversations and using our experience and share them so that when you get to the crunch moments within big games you get the team across the line?
“I think we’ve got the right players that are able to do that and we’ve certainly got the talent.”
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