'Super' Root targets next level

When Yorkshire celebrated their Championship win by doing the Otley Run - a fancy-dress pub crawl from Headingley to the centre of Leeds, and downhill all the way in more senses than one - Joe Root, who had returned from England duties to lead them to the title, dressed up as the Nintendo hero Super Mario. To defeat his adversaries in the classic platformer game, and rescue Princess Peach along the way, Super Mario has to leap around a lot and conquer all manner of strange worlds. He is lucky: Root has to try to win the World Cup with England.

England, as they are repeatedly reminded, have never won a World Cup. This week not one England player was named in the ICC's one-day team of the year. Their approach has been widely characterised as chary and outdated. Even The Great Man himself, Sachin Tendulkar, has apologetically dismissed their chances on his book promotion at Lord's.

It sounds as if Root and co will need to summon the sort of trick moves, imaginative strategies and gleeful adventure beyond the wit even of a dumpy Italian plumber if they are to prosper. When it comes to the 50-over game, their own Mushroom Kingdom has long been toxic.

Root, in response to such ingrained pessimism (most England fans on social media have thrown in the towel already), summons the sort of answer adopted by the football team before they headed to Brazil for their own World Cup - although look what happened to them. "There's not an expectation for us to do well, which could work out for us," he said. "We know we have the squad of players to do really good things and a lot of young exciting players. We're very capable."

And optimistic is exactly what he should be, firstly because of a misconceived tournament structure which barring total calamity pretty much guarantees their qualification for the quarter-finals and, after which, it is sudden death and, secondly, because if Root can't be optimistic who can?

Four hundreds in an English summer, three big ones in Tests, all of them unbeaten, capped by an exuberant ODI hundred against India on his home ground, represented a summer of transformation, one in which he developed from talented young buck to incontestably an integral part of this England side in both formats. A Test record of 777 runs at 97.12 last summer, at only 23, was exceptional; his one-day form until that wonderful final flourish was run-of-the-mill by comparison.

That ODI hundred therefore seemed crucial for him in terms of his own career, although he shies away from the notion. His place in the Test side is entrenched, but an average of 36.48 and strike rate of 79.59 in ODIs suggest that there is still work to be done in the format that will now consume him. For all England's failure consistently to assemble big totals, they have enough talent to have left out Gary Ballance for the forthcoming tour of Sri Lanka, and the likes of Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler, Ravi Bopara, Moeen Ali and James Taylor represent stiff competition.

Was it an important hundred psychologically? Interestingly, he answered for the team not himself, concentrating on a 41-run victory which clipped the series defeat to 3-1, not a bad attribute for a player whose cricketing nous is already so respected that his elevation to the England captaincy one day is largely taken for granted.

"A little bit," he said. "More than anything, we wanted to make sure we finished off with a win. Throughout that series we didn't do both disciplines well together. In the last game we got it right. We wanted to prove to everyone we were a good side and we have ambitions to win this World Cup. Our weakness has been pretty obvious. We have not scored big enough scores. You have got to score over 300 generally now to be competitive, we know that. We haven't got quite the Powerplay overs right. We will make sure we do everything we can to put that right."

He admitted that he was "pretty cooked" as the season drew to a close, but a month off has replenished his energy levels. He has moved house, run up some of Sheffield's many hills, and has even got his ukulele out again - an impromptu buy on a New Zealand tour.

"All the wives and girlfriends had come out so I was left on my own and, walking round a shopping mall, I saw this music shop. I thought about trying my hand at playing a musical instrument and this ukulele was the first thing that jumped out at me. It might make a trip abroad this winter, but at the minute I've only got half a song going - 'No Woman No Cry', a bit of a strange one for a ukulele."

If you can think you can play Bob Marley on the ukulele then you naturally think you can win the World Cup, but somebody should buy him a George Formby songbook for Christmas.

The rain was tippling down in Leeds, the weather has turned cold and Root was dressed head to toe in black, always a sign that winter is on its way and that cricketers should naturally be looking to migrate. He has already packed the stock phrases, none more important now England's course is set than an endorsement of Alastair Cook, England's beleaguered captain: "Cookie is our leader and we have absolute respect for him. We want to win games for him because we know how important he is to us. That's another thing that's going to be driving us forward. We've got his back."

He has reflected before on his Ashes tour travails when he was shunted up and down the order and where he became becalmed as Australia found a length to expose him. But hearing him talk again of his difficulties last winter was a reminder just how quickly he has addressed his problems, and not just stabilised his career but driven it forward.

"I got very internal, didn't play many shots, just looked to survive a lot of the time," he said. "I just didn't go anywhere and I had to go out there, express myself, be aggressive when I could be and absorb pressure when I couldn't. It was up to me to counterattack when the right opportunity came. I got that balance right this past summer."

There is a perkiness about Root in full flow, an awareness of possibilities, that insists he can make the same strides in the one-day game. His reinvention must take him aback in his more contemplative moments. All his formative years spent opening the batting, and teaching himself denial, and suddenly in the middle order his personality is flourishing. If other England batsmen can find themselves anything is possible.

"The middle order is something I really enjoyed this summer. It might be a slight change of rhythm but more than anything the game is set up when you come into play. You walk into a situation rather than set the situation. That meant when I was out there I had absolute clarity on what I wanted to do. I could get my bearings and work things out.

"We've got to stand up, front up and put those performances in. Everyone is determined to do that. After the way it went in the Ashes last winter, there was obviously going to be a lot of focus on how we bounced back in the Tests to save face for English cricket. We know we've not been good enough in one-day cricket for the last six months and this period now is about getting it right and making sure we're in the best shape possible for February 14."