Joe Root has perfect examples to follow in big four contemporaries

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Monitoring Desk

Joe Root has long been touted as a future England captain and following Alastair Cook’s decision to step down from the role, the Yorkshireman’s time is now.
The 26-year-old has been England’s standout performer with the bat over the past three years and has been referred to as one of the ‘big four’ alongside Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson.
Having been tipped to set the standard for the next generation of batsmen, none have disappointed in the time since such a prophecy was first made.
Now, following the promotion of Root – the youngest of the group – from the vice-captaincy, they must each contend with the responsibility of leading their respective nations in the Test arena. The warning prior to his appointment was that Root may be inhibited by the captaincy, that the stress and strain of marshalling the team in the field, playing a part in selection and dealing with the added scrutiny that comes with the position could negatively affect his performances with the bat.
It remains to be see whether that will be the case but when it comes to his contemporaries in India, Australia and New Zealand, any such worries have long been forgotten.
In fact, not only have Kohli, Smith and Williamson maintained their impressive Test records, they have improved them – significantly too, in the cases of Smith and Kohli.
Moreover, the fortunes of their respective nations have also improved. Most notably, India’s win percentage in the 23 matches under Kohli’s leadership is more than 65 per cent compared to 35.48 per cent in the 31 matches with him among the ranks.
New Zealand’s win rate has jumped too since Williamson took over, albeit the sample size is much smaller. The Black Caps won 31.25 per cent of the 48 games before he was given the captaincy but have triumphed in six of their 10 Tests since.
Meanwhile, Australia won 14 of the 30 Tests Smith featured in before replacing Michael Clarke (46.66 per cent) and have come out on top in 11 of the 20, 55 per cent, in the subsequent months.
Of course, the captain can only do so much to impact the team and much depends on the players at his disposal. The good news for Root is that, despite a heavy defeat in India, he takes over a side brimming with potential.
“England are a very good Test team,” Sir Ian Botham said last summer. “They’re a team that I think will go to No 1 in the world in the next year or so, as soon as they can.”
Whether or not Root can take England to the top of the Test rankings, and how long that might take, is another unknown and with so little in the way of recent experience, it is nigh on impossible to know how adept a captain he is or could become.
What is altogether clearer is the class he oozes as a batsman. 4,594 runs at 52.80 in 53 Tests is a record comparable with the very best in the world and one that Root has himself admitted could and should be even better.
Despite another record-breaking year, in which he has scored more heavily in Tests than ever before, there is disappointment that he has managed just three centuries. That those are the only three of his past 17 scores of 50-plus that he has converted into hundreds has been a source of great irritation for him.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t frustrated about it but I feel my game is in good order,” Root said after the most recent occurrence in Chennai. “I’m not sure why it is, I wouldn’t say overconfidence, but maybe I need to rein it in slightly. But if it’s a bad ball I want to hit it for four.”
The hope for England fans is that the captaincy can do for Root what it has done, in particular, for Kohli and Smith and help elevate him to another level, turning more of his superb seventies into sparkling centuries.
Kohli, the elder statesman of the quartet at 28, was the first to take charge of his country, replacing MS Dhoni as Test captain midway through 2014/15 tour of Australia.
At the time he had hit seven hundreds in 31 Tests at a very respectable average of 41.13. In the two years since though, his form has been remarkable: 2,353 runs, nine centuries – four doubles in as many series – and an average of 67.22. Next to step up from the ranks was Smith, the Australian given the job in aftermath of the 2015 Ashes. The spinner-turned-batsman was already averaging over 50 prior to taking over but has gone on to even greater heights as captain, plundering 2,212 runs, including nine centuries, at a scarcely believable average of 73.73. As for Williamson, while there has been no such dramatic rise, the Black Caps’ skipper averages 55 since stepping up to the top job in the wake of Brendon McCullum’s retirement last February, compared to just shy of 50 prior to taking the reins.
Of course, for all that these four outstanding batsmen have found themselves clumped together, they are very different individuals and there is no guarantee that Root will emulate the startling upturns of Kohli and Smith, or even the marginal gains of Williamson.
However, if ever he is in doubt, Root need only look at the records of his fellow ‘big four’ batsmen to see that the responsibility of leading his country need not be a burden.