Joe Root will miss the Twenty20 series against Australia and New Zealand next month after discussions with Trevor Bayliss. The England coach had voiced his hope the Test captain would sit out the triangular series that begins on February 7 and Root will now rest at home for a fortnight before the New Zealand one-day series starts.
Root had hoped to use the T20s to develop his white-ball cricket before next year’s home World Cup and the World Twenty20 in 2020, especially as he believes he is at risk of falling behind given his lack of exposure to the shortest format.
The 27-year-old has been on song in the 50-over internationals with Australia, which England sealed with a 16-run win at the SCG on Sunday to go 3-0 up in the five-match series.
Root marshalled chases at Melbourne and Brisbane with scores of 91 not out and 46 not out, respectively. His 27 in the third ODI means he averages 164 in this series. Reluctantly, he has agreed to some time off. “It was a discussion that has taken a long time,” Root said. “I had every intention of playing that series but Trevor is mindful of it being a very long summer. There is a lot of cricket to be played.
“Eventually we came to the decision that it would be good to have a break in between the one-dayers in New Zealand and now. Sometimes you have to look over a long period of time, making sure that we get to the middle of the summer and the back end of next winter and still feel fresh and raring to go and not burnt out.”
He has, however, entered the Indian Premier League auction at the end of the month and should be picked up: he starts at a base price of £170,000 and can play the majority for the tournament, which runs from 4 April to 27 May. Only England’s second Test against New Zealand and first Test of the summer against Pakistan will impinge on his availability.
The England and Wales Cricket Board’s more relaxed stance on the IPL is clear: all 11 players from the first three Australia ODIs will enter the auction. Jake Ball is the only member of the 15-man squad not to enter. “It fell into place this year,” Root said. “With all that is coming up, it’s a great window to try to explore that side of my game. There is a money side to it – there is no point lying about it – but that is not why I went into the auction. I believe playing a block of Twenty20 cricket with that scrutiny, being under pressure, for long periods of time against the world’s players would be a great opportunity to develop and learn.”
To Yorkshire fans, allowing Root to rest for England matches but play in the IPL will jar. He did not play a T20 Blast match for Yorkshire Vikings in 2017 and, in the past two seasons, has played three of a possible 30 domestic T20s. Since the last World T20 final in April 2016, Root has also played only five of nine international T20s.
“You want to keep learning, developing and improving,” he said. “The frustration is there is never any chance to go back and play in the T20 Blast. You almost feel that every time you turn up to a T20 international there is a chance you have fallen behind the rest of the guys. You never want to let the rest of the guys down.
“I hate missing games for England. It doesn’t sit well with me. You look at the amount of cricket we have got coming up and the opportunity that the IPL brings and you almost have to look at it as more of an investment for my game and for all the England team moving forward.”
Joe Root
