England Test captain Joe Root says watching the documentary series about the Australia team has helped motivate him for next winter’s Ashes. Notably, with a complete lockdown in most parts of the world due to the breakdown of the coronavirus pandemic, all the cricketing activities have been shut with the cricketers left with a lot of time to do the things they love to do the most.

England’s two-Test tour of Sri Lanka in March was called off after the first warm-up game and there will be no cricket in the United Kingdom until at least 28 May because of the coronavirus pandemic, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced.

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Meanwhile, ‘The Test’ features footage from inside the dressing room and ends with Australia retaining the Ashes in England last summer. The series available on the digital platform Amazon Prime captures the details after the ball-tampering scandal in March 2018 in South Africa.

Speaking on the documentary, Joe Root said that it has motivated him to get up and train for the Ashes 2021. The high-profile encounter in Australia is due to start in November 2021.

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“It’s been a good motivator to get back and train, use it as a way of incentivising myself,” Root said. “I resisted watching that for a good while. I’ve started watching the first few now. A lot of the things we do in Test cricket revolve around planning for the Ashes down under,” he added. 

England are due to play home Test series against West Indies and Pakistan this summer before touring India in the winter. If the schedule goes as per Future Tour Program, the three lions will have 17 matches to go to the Ashes and will hope to bring back the Ashes urn.

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