The Cricketer's People of 2021: Joe Root, the batsman

HUW TURBERVILL: For the whole of 2021 he has carried his/this England Test team, outscoring his nearest team-mate by more than 1,000 runs

Sometimes you can't make it on your own, sang U2 in 2005. It's a song Joe Root must relate to.

For the whole of 2021 he has carried his/this England Test team, outscoring his nearest teammate by more than 1,000 runs.

It's not just how many he has made, too: it's the way he makes them. The regal cover drive, the exquisite leg-glance, the artful dab, the seemingly never-failing sweep (and reverse), the powerful punch through point, plus the punishing pull… a sweet brew of timing, guile and finesse.

For all that brilliance, Root, 30, deserves to sign off his captaincy stint with the one prize that is missing – an Ashes series win – but alas it is not going to happen.

England Test captains, I'm afraid, are recalled for their Ashes records – certainly be me, anyway.

^{Joe Root has been magnificent for England with the bat in 2021}

Two away defeats and a home draw dictate that, ultimately, he will not go down as one of the great leaders, alongside Douglas Jardine Mike Brearley, Ray Illingworth and co.

To an extent it's unfair, as Root has actually won more Tests than any other captain, 27, ahead of Michael Vaughan (26), and Sir Andrew Strauss and Sir Alastair Cook (24 each). But they all won the urn outright, in 2005; 2009 and 2010/11; and 2013 and 2015 respectively.

An Ashes win can make you for life: Mike Gatting won two Tests out of 23 as England Test captain – both in the 1986/87 Ashes.

All were fine batsmen in their own right, but the fact is, they were blessed with more gifted batsmen in the ranks alongside them: Marcus Trescothick, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott to name just a few.

Root didn't make one Test hundred in 2020 but recommitted himself to converting to three figures once more back in January, with astonishing effect

As David Gower told The Cricketer: "I can't remember an England team that has been so reliant on one player as this one is on Joe Root… all things have depended on whether he gets 150 or not."

In that sense the year started well.

He made 228 and 186 in the two Test wins over Sri Lanka at Galle; and then his 218 gave England a winning start at Chennai.

The Indian pitch curators came to the rescue for the hosts, however: England faced more vicious spin than tumbled out of Malcolm Tucker's mouth as even Root was brought back down to earth.

^{Root beat Michael Vaughan's record for most Test runs by an Englishman in a calendar year}

Back on home soil against the same opposition he peeled the centuries off again, however: 109 at Trent Bridge, 180 at Lord's, and yet England still lost the rubber. It must have been heart-breaking.

Root didn't make one Test hundred in 2020 but recommitted himself to converting to three figures once more back in January, with astonishing effect. Such effect, in fact, that he is now the holder of the record for the most runs by an Englishman in a calendar year in Tests.

It really is quite an achievement.

JOE ROOT IN TESTS IN 2021

15 matches

1,708 runs

Average: 61.00

100s: 6

Alas he didn't have as much success recalibrating his captaincy.

That his brilliant deputy, Ben Stokes, was indisposed in last summer's major series was a major spanner in the works for his leadership, and the ECB have also not helped.

The County Championship fixture list in 2021 was a disgrace, prompting even mild-mannered Root to see red.

^{Root's captaincy might be in question but his quality with the bat certainly is not}

Mark Wood was expected to go into that Lord's Test against mighty India without having bowled a ball in competitive red-ball cricket for 60 days.

If Root's captaincy does indeed end after this series as many suspect it will, however, there is no doubt that he has given everything for the cause.

If he wants consolation, he can look at Ricky Ponting.

A magnificent batsman, one of Australia's greatest, he did lead them to an emphatic victory in the 2006/07 Ashes and overall his men won 48 out of 77 Tests when he was in charge; but for many he will be recalled as his their only captain to lose three Ashes series: in 2005, 2009 and 2010/11.

It just shows that these things happen to the best of them.

THE CRICKETER'S PEOPLE OF 2021 (links open in external window in app)

Alice Capsey

Azeem Rafiq

Ben Stokes

Ian Watmore

Nathan Leamon