'I'm like Peter Pan': Joe Root still young at heart after anchoring England home

Root was once the side’s cheeky young insurgent but, after a dozen years and 144 caps, he is now the elder statesmen of the group.

At 33 he is still younger than both Chris Woakes and Mark Wood, both of whom lined up in the five-wicket victory over Sri Lanka at Emirates Old Trafford, but since James Anderson’s retirement earlier this summer nobody comes close to Root for international experience.

He showed all of his savvy to manage a tricky chase in the first Test in Manchester, grinding out an unbeaten 62 to hunt down 205 on Saturday on a stubborn surface.

Joining him in the winner’s huddle were relative novices Shoaib Bashir, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Smith and Matthew Potts – a quartet with 22 appearances between them. When the squad reconvenes at Lord’s on Tuesday, uncapped 20-year-old Josh Hull will be standing in for the injured Wood.

“They don’t get younger do they?” said Root, after sealing England’s fourth straight win of the summer.

“Those guys they keep you young more than anything. In this job you can be a bit like Peter Pan, you never really have to grow up; you just think you’re the same age as the guy you’re batting with or the blokes around you.

“I think the really nice thing about it is we all get on really well with each other, even if we do take the mick out of each other.

“Brooky was calling me grandad the other day…I mean 33 is a good effort to be a grandad! It was so funny, he was chasing me in the field saying ‘don’t let me catch you’ as if we were playing a village game. That’s what you want, for it to be fun and to have a laugh out there.

“It’s nice to forget that there’s a bit on the line and you can just enjoy it, and we were able to do that which is a really good place to be.

“I still feel pretty young and I feel like there’s a lot of cricket left in me.”

As well as taunting his Yorkshire team-mate, 25-year-old Brook had a new role in Manchester as vice-captain to stand-in skipper Ollie Pope.

Root led England 64 times between 2017 and 2022 – more than anyone else in the role – and is delighted to see others pick up the mantle with Ben Stokes on the injured list.

“I think they did really well. It’s great to see young lads stepping up and taking those responsibilities on and doing a really good job,” he said.

“I offer what I can and every now and again you chip in, but it’s everyone’s team and they’re the future of it. They’re very smart young lads, they know the game really well, they’re gaining lots of experience all the time and they’re taking the team in a really good direction.”

England are expected to continue blooding new talent when they announce their white-ball squads to take on Australia next month.

After the sacking of limited-overs head coach Matthew Mott, further change could be in the air with Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali waiting to find out if they have a future.

Bairstow, a key part of the 2019 World Cup winning side, was dropped from the Test team at the start of the summer, with director of cricket Rob Key suggesting that his form was trending downwards across all formats. If he misses out this time, the 34-year-old may have played for England for the final time.

Moeen has been vice-captain to Jos Buttler in recent years but at 37, acknowledges his international career is winding down. Warwickshire’s Barbados-born all-rounder Jacob Bethell is set to receive his first call-up and could take up the mantle as a second spin option.

Pope was relieved to lead England to a five-wicket success at Emirates Old Trafford, the first of three outings as stand-in skipper for the injured Ben Stokes.

He admitted his predecessor was left “bored” at being consigned to a watching brief on the balcony but found his own experience more challenging as the game reached its conclusion.

A fine century from Kamindu Mendis left England chasing 205 in the fourth innings, with scoring tricky due to a slow surface and a turgid outfield.

In the end England, who have established a reputation as arguably the most aggressive team in the world, were forced to take it slow and steady over the course of 58 overs.

Root read it better than anyone, spending just over three hours carving out his decisive 62 not out which included just two boundaries.

Pope said: “I think another day you might see us try and knock that score off in 20 overs fewer but that was the nature of the pitch and a pretty slow outfield as well.

“This is not just a one dimensional team where we want to go out and score quickly. It’s a team where we want to keep reading situations slightly better and try and be as ruthless as we can. It’s not all about just trying to score as fast as we can, it’s about getting the job done as well.

“It was different (being captain) but I enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed trying to find different ways of taking 20 wickets. I thought I did alright. I’m sure there will be a few people that can say otherwise, but I was pretty happy with it.”

The only thing that suffered was his batting, scoring six in each innings. “That’s one thing I can take from this Test – I’m captain when I’m in the field but that when batting, it’s batting time.”