England skipper Joe Root will be playing his 100th Test match when England take on India in the first Test in Chennai on Friday. Root, at 30, will become of of the youngest cricketers to get to that feat among the modern generation of cricketers. Root is coming with runs on his in the recently concluded Test series against Sri Lanka. He ended the series with 426 runs with scores of 228 and 186 in the two-Test matches.
Meanwhile, ahead of the first Test, Joe Root spoke to BBC’s Test Match Special about England’s upcoming Test series against India and his willingness to play international T20 cricket. He said that he would like to be a part of England’s World T20 squad for the marquee tournament later this year in India. He played his last T20 international more than a year ago against Pakistan.
Would Love To Be Part of England’s World T20 Squad: Joe Root
I would love to be a part of that World Cup squad, I love playing all three formats, everything is a different challenge,” Root said.
He further said that he loves playing this format of the game and would love to contribute if given an opportunity again.
“I haven’t had the opportunity to play a huge amount of T20 games in the last few years, but I am also aware of the guys who are playing some amazing cricket, they are brilliant players and fully deserve their chance. But if I get an opportunity, all I can do is try to score as many runs as I can when it comes to T20 games.”
He further opened up on his achievement of playing 100 Tests for his country. The likes of Kevin Pietersen, Alastair Cook, under whom Root started his career and now James Anderson and Stuart Broad all have played over 100 Tests and now Root will join an elite list alongside these names. He said that he has reached 100 Tests “rather quickly.” He also made his Test debut against India in India back in 2012 in Nagpur.
“It feels like yesterday, walking around in Nagpur. Hopefully, it’s not the end of the journey, and there is plenty of games to come, and plenty of fantastic memories to make” Root concluded saying.