Ben Gardner reports from Lord’s on another sublime innings from Joe Root, a player in the form of his life.

It’s not just that Joe Root is, having just turned 30, in the best form of his Test career. It’s not just that he’s averaging more than double England’s next best batsman for the year. It’s not just that he’s overturned his home form just when England needed it, stringing together back-to-back tons for the first time in his Test career having gone two years with a hundred on English soil before this summer. And it’s not just that he’s managed all that while grappling with a global pandemic, a county schedule, a rest and rotation policy, a governing body and a spate of freak injuries that have conspired to deprive him of his best team for 12 Tests in succession. It’s that he’s done all that, and somewhere along the line, he’s rediscovered his smile as well.

For a time, the twin burdens of Test captaincy and being England’s best player had hung heavy, so heavy in fact that, for a time, that latter title slipped. 2020 saw him go a whole year without reaching three figures for the first time in Test cricket, and each dose of misfortune, each batting collapse, each personal failure seemed to cut just a little deeper. It was tempting to wonder if Root’s best had long since passed before we’d even realised it was before us, those heady days in 2014 and 2015 when he dashed England to an Ashes victory and himself to the No.1 Test ranking.

From the highs of an average touching 57 in that time, he found himself coming into this year with his runs per dismissal below 48. Now it’s back where it belongs, above 50, but that matters far less than the joy on Root’s face, the vim in every stroke, the relish with which he approaches every new disaster into which he walks, a nation asking once more, ‘Joe, if you could?’

It feels like a long time ago now, England having taken a first-innings lead for the first time since the first Test in India, but Root walked in with his side in some trouble. Dom Sibley had aberrated, Haseeb Hameed had come and gone, and England were 23-2. Root kept out the hat-trick ball, the first of two he would negotiate in the innings, and then did what he does but what he didn’t for too long, tucking, driving and scampering England back into the game.

This time, he did at least have some support, dragging his teammates along in his slipstream and showing them that, actually, this batting thing isn’t impossible. At Trent Bridge, no one else made more than 32. Here, Rory Burns and Jonny Bairstow fell either side of fifty, and while each should rue a chance to cash in on a pitch as friendly as they are likely to come across all summer, they can also be thankful that, with Root in this form, a mere supporting hand can often be enough.

Where would England be without Root? It’s a question that almost doesn’t bear pondering upon, but also a fascinating thought experiment. If you go game by game, it’s arguably only the first Test against Sri Lanka in which England would have avoided defeat this year without Root standing tall. They would likely already be 2-0 down to India, their Ashes plans torn to shreds rather than simply fraying, the jobs of coaches, chief executives, managing directors on the line.

It’s tempting to wonder if, in a way, Root’s brilliance might be diverting attention away from the issues that need solving. Why fix a county calendar that has seen all but a few play practically no first-class cricket in the lead-up to this series when it’s possible to play like this coming in cold? Why attempt to alleviate the obscene workloads placed upon England’s all-format stars when Root is so amenable, so happy to oblige, to shoulder another burden and strum a century with his country on his back? English cricket is not in a great place, with a fanbase divided and a Test team creaking. Without Root it would be broken beyond repair. How long can he continue to hold it all together and the rest of the world at bay? Like so much else, maybe best not to think about it. For now at least, let’s bask in the glow of his latest epic and leave the worrying for another day.

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