Former captain says circumstances for this year’s trip are ‘completely different’ from Covid tour of 2021-22
Vithushan Ehantharajah08-Oct-2025″Maybe it is,” laughs Joe Root, when asked if Matthew Hayden’s threat to walk naked across the Melbourne Cricket Ground is extra pressure on his shoulders.As Root heads into his fourth Ashes tour, Hayden has backed him to end his wait for a century on Australian shores. His previous 27 innings, dating back to 2013, have produced just nine fifties, but Hayden is so certain that that drought is about to end, he is willing to don his birthday suit for a stroll across the iconic ground if it doesn’t.Hayden’s comments on the “All Over Bar The Cricket” podcast came after co-host Greg Blewett had omitted Root from a combined Ashes XI for lacking in the hundred column. Both perspectives hint at a simple truth; the success of Test cricket’s second-highest runscorer correlates directly to England’s best chance Down Under since their famous 2010-11 success.It is a sentiment Root acknowledges to be true. But he is reluctant to ascribe his own legacy to England’s fortunes. Nor is he willing to dwell on the words of former Australians.”They are going to say what they want to say anyway, so why bother worrying about it?” Root says, matter-of-factly. “It doesn’t make a huge amount of difference. When we look back in five years’ time, no one is going to remember what Matthew Hayden said to me … Greg Blewett, Mark Waugh, whoever it is. They are going to look back on the scoreline and think that is a historic England win or not.”At the end of the day, this tour is not about me. If I am scoring runs and scoring heavily it gives us a great opportunity to win a series out in Australia. That is the main focus.”A narrower focus has paid dividends so far. Since relinquishing the captaincy in 2022 to Ben Stokes, Root has averaged 58.00 (lifting his career average to 51.29 in the process), with 14 hundreds converted from the 27 times he has passed fifty. Beyond scoring quicker – his strike-rate is 66.89 across this period – there is an evident sense of joy in his batting.Joe Root passes on some tips at an RBC skill share day•Chance to ShineThough he has been part of two successful home Ashes campaigns in 2013 and 2015, it is a joy the Australian public has not witnessed first-hand. Root’s maiden tour in 2013-14 resulted in him being dropped for the only time in his career as he averaged 27.42 amidst a 5-0 capitulation, before he captained successive 4-0 defeats, averaging 47.25 and 32.20, respectively.Root insists the burden of leadership did not contribute to his failings. But he was certainly hamstrung by situations around both tours.”I go there in a completely different capacity to last time, different circumstances, a lot more experience now and I feel like I have a really good understanding of my game and how I want to manage it in these conditions,” he says. “If I focus on that sort of stuff more than myself and my own individual stuff, I will give myself a way better chance.”The most recent tour, in 2021-22, came during the Covid-19 pandemic. Fears about touring among the England team – Root included – became a reality, as both sides felt the effects of the virus. Despite the severe restrictions of their trip, positive tests and forced isolations became a regular occurrence, with visiting head coach Chris Silverwood forced to miss the Sydney Test after a family member became England’s seventh Covid-19 case. Stuart Broad later suggested the tour should be considered “void”, feeling the burden on the players did not lend itself to “high-level performance”.Broad, having signed off his career in style at the end of the 2023 Ashes, will be out in Australia this time as a commentator for Channel Seven and SEN. “It’s not really in Stuart’s nature to wind up Australians is it?” Root jokes. “I’m sure he’ll be really well behaved.” Regardless of what extra support he may have from the commentary box, Root – now back in the ranks – urges his teammates make the most of this trip following that previous, chastening experience.”Are we going to be allowed out of our rooms? Is everyone going to make the plane? It is a completely different set of circumstances for everyone involved on that tour. There are so many different things they don’t have to deal with now.”I am really going to encourage the lads to really enjoy Australia as a country,” he adds. “Anyone that was on that previous tour didn’t get the chance to do that. It is a great place to go and play cricket and have the pleasure of visiting. We should absolutely go and explore it, and see all of the great things that come with being an international cricketer and playing in that country.”Root has struggled to produce his very best on his previous tours of Australia•Steve Bell/Getty ImagesRoot is one of five returning players this time around, along with Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Mark Wood and, of course, Stokes. The allrounder’s participation in 2021-22 was only confirmed late in the day, as he returned from a mental health break, having also struggled with a badly broken finger. Four years earlier, he had missed the 2017-18 campaign due to an ECB suspension, following his involvement in a fight outside a Bristol nightclub in September 2017.There is an argument to be made that this iteration of Stokes will be the best to touch down in Australia, even as he recovers from a right shoulder injury. Though he impressed on his first trip as a 22-year-old debutant in 2013-14, making a brilliant maiden century at Perth before taking 6 for 99 in Sydney, he has yet to show the Australian public the fruits of that early promise.It was only this summer, aged 34, that Stokes bettered that first series haul of 15 dismissals, claiming 17 in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. And having seemingly rediscovered his verve with the bat – averaging 43.42 against India – Root believes form and leadership has forged a more complete Stokes.”He’s not really had many opportunities to be (himself in Australia) really, has he?” he says.”He’ll be ready. You look at him when he’s been running around at different county grounds, he’s making sure he’s absolutely ready. I’ve never seen him (like this)… making sure he’s done absolutely everything he can to be as fit as he can possibly be, as mentally ready, and as hungry as he is.Related
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“For him to be going out there as our leader of the back, off a series where he’s got the most wickets he’s ever got in a Test series, off the back of a Test hundred as well, and playing really well with the bat. In conditions which, I think, really suit the way he plays cricket; the bounce of the ball as a batter, and the way he combats pace. Clearly as a bowler, what he has to work with there, and his mentality and physicality, I think he’s got great attributes to exploit the conditions there.”So as a player alone, I think it’s going to be huge that he’s out there, he’s fit and he’s firing. But more so as a leader, and his mentality in bringing the best out of the players around him.”Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Stokes’ inspirational qualities is that, for the past two years, he has been moulding a new group of players. Only eight of the touring party played in 2023’s home Ashes, three of whom will be on their first Test tour of Australia. Yet, there are no fears that they will be overawed.Root points to big series such as 2023, and the India series – both at the start of 2024 and in the summer just gone – in which players have experienced high-pressure moments, irrespective of the fact that England have yet to win a five-Test series under Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum.He cites the struggles individuals have had – “a number of guys have had to weather a small storm in their career” – that will hold them in good stead for what, ultimately, is a bucket-list tour. One of the most important of their collective careers.Joe Root and Ben Stokes will be looking to right the wrongs of previous tours of Australia•Getty ImagesIndeed, Root’s biggest excitement comes from what some of those first-timers will provide – namely the pace of Wood, Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue. England may well roll out their fastest-ever combination for a Test match in Australia, when the teams line up for the opener at Perth’s Optus Stadium on November 21.”We’re going to be able to hit them with something quite different in terms of our bowling attack,” he says. “The opportunity to potentially play three or four bowlers that bowl 90mph-plus for a sustained period of time, which we haven’t had on the three previous tours there. And a batting order that is always going to look to put pressure on the opposition.”It’s not like we are going to go there with the same formula and expect different results. We are going to go there and try and do it a slightly different way which I think is really exciting. And the way we’ve been playing lines up well with how we want to go and attack all those conditions.”There are not many teams that can offer that when they go to Australia. The one team that has previously, recently anyway, is India and they’re the ones that have had the most success there. It’ll be interesting to see how that correlates with how we go about things.”This seam attack is a change from the norm, and very much by design. The onus on speed, which essentially brought an end to James Anderson’s career last year, has been driven by the desires of Stokes, McCullum and managing director Rob Key to form a battery of quicks capable of challenging all comers in all conditions – even in England, with the management ordering flatter pitches for their batters which require bowlers of sharper speeds and skills to take 20 wickets.Seamers have enjoyed more success in Australia in recent seasons, which heightens the sense that bowlers on both sides will be a determining factor this winter. “It looks like they’re slightly more bowler-friendly since Pat (Cummins) has been captain!” Root says of the pitches, tongue firmly in cheek.Of course, even with Australia’s struggles over the identity of their top three, and increasing uncertainty around Cummins’ back injury, nothing is being taken for granted. Particularly given England have not won a Test over there since 2011.”Clearly they’re a very good team. They’ve got a brilliant record at home against everyone but especially against us. I think it’s just a great oppportunity to go in, probably as big underdogs, and show them what we can do.”It’d be nice to put that right and bring the urn home. I just see it as a great opportunity for the group. There’s no other way to look at it, really. It’s exciting that we can go there with a completely different approach and just enjoy what a brilliant tour it is.”Just soak it all in, expect a little bit of ‘abuse’ or ‘banter’. It could be six weeks that live long in the memory if we get it right.”Joe Root was speaking as a brand ambassador for RBC Wealth Management, who are the Community Leadership Partner of children’s cricket charity Chance to Shine. He was speaking at an RBC skill share day, designed to develop the leadership skills and confidence of secondary school girls.