Former Test captain Joe Root scored his 33rd Test century at Lord's against Sri Lanka owing his achievement to his late friend and former batting mentor Graham Thorpe, who passed away earlier this month.
"I've been very lucky to work with a lot of people, whether it be senior players, coaches, mentors, and Thorpey was one of those people who offered me so much," Root said. "It was nice to be able to think of him [Thorpe] in that moment. He's someone I'm sorely going to miss, and who I owe a lot to. He put a lot into my game into my career, and without his help, I definitely wouldn't be where I am now."
In this regard, the right-handed batter pointed his index finger to the skies after drawing level with his former captain Alastair Cook.
The 33-year-old made these comments after his 143 helped England recover from 130/4 to go to stumps at 358/7 at Lord's on the opening day of the second Test against Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, the star-cricketer Graham played a major role in the batting evolution of Root, who just now needs 198 runs to become the country’s top Test run-getter.
"He saw something with me and pushed hard for me to go away that winter and worked with him. We worked tirelessly on my game against spin - being able to get close to the ball, get away from it, utilising different sweeps - and also against pace... working very hard to make sure that those areas of the game which are different to county cricket, you are up to speed with," Root recalled.
Root, 33, made his debut back in 2012. He played his first game in England's tour of India in Nagpur.
During the conversation, the top-order batter discussed the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka.
Moreover, he supported the stand-in captain Ollie Pope, who had a third successive failure in the series.
"It's so easy to make it something when it isn't at all," Root said defending Pope when asked about the added burden on him of having to lead the side in Ben Stokes's injury-forced absence. "He seems to be in a really good place with it. That's more of a storyline for [the media] to play around with. For him, it's business as usual, go out there and play in the manner that has given him so much success."
- Joe Root
