England’s golden boy Joe Root was left somewhat embarrassed when his long-awaited return to the crease for Yorkshire, in the County Championship match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, resulted in a golden duck.
Root was making his first Championship appearance for Yorkshire in 18 months, having missed the entirety of the Tykes’ 2015 title-winning campaign through his international exploits with England. Indeed, Root only made one appearance for Yorkshire throughout last season, making 55 from 39 balls in the high-profile T20 Blast encounter with Lancashire Lightning at a sold out Headingley last June.
However, the 25-year-old hadn’t made a Championship start for Yorkshire since the final game of their previous season, when 97 runs helped draw the game with Somerset to conclude the champions’ campaign in September 2014. With England’s Test series against Sri Lanka about to kick-off with a May 19th date at Headingley, and the home team at the time of writing at odds off 8/15 in the latest cricket odds to win the series outright, Root was keen to get into the groove with his home county, but was in for a rude awakening.
Notts seamer Jake Ball made a blistering start to Yorkshire’s first innings on day two of the four-day game. Ball had already accounted for Adam Lyth, LBW, with the first ball of the innings when he also had Gary Ballance caught behind and then Root caught at first slip by Riki Wessels in successive balls. This meant the young seamer, who toured with the England Lions last winter, had taken the wickets of three England batsmen in just 21 deliveries.
It left Yorkshire reeling on 24-3 and Root a little sheepish as he turned and headed straight back into the pavilion. It was far from the re-introduction that Root, Yorkshire and England were hoping for.
The Sheffield-born batsman has climbed to number two in the world batting rankings and become the leading run scorer in Test cricket in 2015 with 1,278 runs in the time he has been absent from the Yorkshire county championship team. Yorkshire haven’t exactly struggled without Root, of course, and famously won the 2015 Championship title without a host of England players, including Lyth, Ballance, Root, Jonny Bairstow and Adil Rashid.
Despite being a well-established England player, Root has always tried to turn out for his county side when possible. In 2014, Root even captained the White Rose county twice in the absence of regular skipper Andrew Gale and when he was recovering fitness after breaking his thumb earlier in the year.
Now Root is building up to an important year for England and the two-time Ashes winner is looking to firmly establish himself as the world’s leading batsman. His appearance in the Yorkshire side at Trent Bridge was his first since scoring 54 in the shattering World T20 final defeat by the West Indies on April 3rd, demonstrating how Root is effective in all forms of cricket. But, clearly, England’s premier batsman has some work to do before he gets fully up-to-speed in readiness for a long summer of international cricket.
