Rookie Root fails to be distracted by lure of prized Headingley milestone

The fresh-faced 22-year-old, who only made his international debut five months ago, looked an integral part of the Team England furniture as he practised in the nets at Headingley yesterday.

England make a point of making their young players feel at home and, as he prepared for tomorrow’s match at his cricketing home, Root appeared as happy and relaxed as he always does for Yorkshire.

He may be “nowt” but a lad in a cricketing sense – as he is, indeed, in a facial sense – but already it seems he has been around forever and that English cricket would hardly be without him.

The principal reason – Root’s innate natural talent – was in plentiful evidence in the Headingley sunshine.

In the trio of nets erected on the edge of the square towards the West Stand, he coolly ran through his repertoire of shots: cuts, drives, flicks, nudges – all interspersed with defensive strokes as rock-solid as any once played by Geoffrey Boycott.

The pace of Steven Finn and Tim Bresnan was successfully negotiated, as were the more gentle throwdowns of Messrs Andy Flower and Graham Gooch, who put the young man through his paces from something a little less than 22 yards.

The impression was of a cricketer – and a character – as at ease with his game as he was with his surroundings, a man not for nothing dubbed a future England captain.

That Root looked good in the nets was hardly a surprise.

He has looked good all summer, having scored the small matter of 757 first-class runs at an average of 126.16.

It is extremely unlikely, of course, but not entirely out of the question that he could go one better than did his England team-mate Nick Compton last year by scoring 1,000 first-class runs before the end of May.

After all, this is a player who hit a career-best 236 on his last appearance at Headingley, against Derbyshire in the County Championship, and whose lowest score in six first-class innings this season is 40.

Not that Root himself is contemplating the possibility – at least not publicly.

At his press conference yesterday, the suggestion was dead-batted with a dexterity normally reserved for opposition bowlers.

It would be the fairytale of fairytales if he could achieve, at Headingley, a landmark attained by only eight men in the game’s history – including Don Bradman, WG Grace and Wally Hammond.

But, as Root was at pains to point out, he “starts out on nought” when the game begins tomorrow and is not thinking about anything other than facing his first ball.

If Root’s manner in the press conference was more matter-of-fact than animated, it was anything but when the training session started.

There was no more enthusiastic participant in the fielding drills, no one with a broader smile than a player who is in the form of his young life.

Not even the inconvenience of a plaster on the little finger of his right hand – the result of a blow sustained during the Championship game at Durham last month – prevented Root from hurling himself hither and thither and clutching catches with familiar gusto. And it was all undertaken with a smile on the face, with a hop, skip and jump evocative of youth.

Noticeable, too, was the amount of bowling that Root undertook.

His off-spin is an unsung yet rapidly blossoming part of his game; Yorkshire have been alive to it for some time, even handing him the opening over in Twenty20 matches.

Root gave the ball plenty of air to his England colleagues and made the occasional delivery turn and bounce.

There was also a trace of playful disappointment on his face when Graeme Swann, England’s premier off-spinner, came down the pitch to him, realised it was perhaps a better ball than he thought and just jabbed his bat down in the nick of time; Root is not only a versatile cricketer but a competitive one too.

Although he did not say it himself, the next few days will be the realisation of a childhood dream for Root: to play for England on his home ground of Headingley.

Clearly it is one of the proudest moments for any Yorkshire cricketer who represents his country, and he will carry the good wishes not only of family and friends, but of cricket watchers in the Broad Acres and beyond.

You find yourself wanting the game to go well for him because of the occasion and the fact that he is a nice lad too.

So, if the cricketing gods could just serve up a maiden Test century for Root and an England victory, you will not find too many in these parts complaining about that.

Yorkshire have sold around 10,000 tickets for the opening day of the Test and around 12,000 for day two. To cope with increasing demand, the Headingley ticket office – located in the Yorkshire Cricket Centre on St Michael’s Lane – is open every day this week from 9.00am-7.00pm. For further details on how to buy tickets, visit: www.yorkshireccc.com