WI v ENG 2019: Root hoping St. Lucia ton paves way for his return to form

England captain dominated the proceedings on Day 3.

Joe Root | Getty

Joe Root played a solid knock of 111* to help his team push their third innings lead towards impregnable proportions in the ongoing third and final Test against West Indies. 

England skipper struck his 16th Test hundred to give a timely reminder of his prowess after an inconsistent run of scores. And he is quite relieved about it. 

"Today something really clicked in," Root told Sky Sports at the end of Day 3 on Monday, "I've been working hard with Ramps (batting coach Mark Ramprakash) and some of the other coaches. It's nice to see it work and hopefully, that'll be a good foundation for a long time to come."

"It felt a long way off at the start of this game, after some of the deliveries I got in the last Test. It's really pleasing to make a start count - I'm glad to have got in and made it count when I got the chance."

"It wasn't pretty at times, it was that sort of wicket and obviously a slow outfield but once I got into the rhythm of the game, it started to feel a little bit easier."

Root, who was averaging only 11 across his five innings in the series till this innings and had just one half-century from more than five Tests behind him, further said, "I've been working on a few things in practice, trying to line myself up a bit better. The body hasn't quite been doing what I want it to at times, which is frustrating, but that can happen over your career."

"You've just got to tinker with things and evolve your game, just as bowlers evolve their plans to you. I've been through a little bit of that over the last six to eight months and somehow managed to find ways of scoring runs."

England currently has an unsurpassable lead of 448 runs in the Test match which should mean that a wise declaration is around the corner. 

"It'll be coming at some point," Root confirmed, "We can have a little think about it, how that roller will affect the wicket and make a judgement call on it early on."

"If it starts to really misbehave more frequently with the older ball - like it did when they took the new ball - that might give us a bit of a nudge to pull out. It's about holding your nerve and putting them under pressure."

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 12 Feb, 2019

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