Going into the next cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC), England Test captain Joe Root believes the national team must give up the “rest and rotation” policy. The England team will play 10 Test matches between August and mid-January 2022, including a home series against India and an away Ashes series against Australia.
This year, the Three Lions have generally had full-strength teams for T20I cricket, but that hasn’t been the case for Test cricket. To overcome India and Australia over the next six months, Root believes England must have their finest players on the field.
‘To make sure everyone’s peaking for that, and these big games’: Joe Root
“We are coming into a period of time now where rest and rotation is put behind us. Hopefully, if everyone is fit, we are going to have our best team available for what is to follow. That’s really exciting and something I’m very much looking forward to,” Root was quoted as saying in an Interview.
“We have ten very hard Test matches against two brilliant opposition coming up but it is a great opportunity for us to play some strong cricket and if everyone is fit and available we will have a good team ourselves,” he stated.
It’s time that rest and rotation policy is put behind us: England Test skipper Joe Root
“I’d like to think that, over the next five Test matches, we’ll be trying to play our strongest side or have our strongest squad available for those games. This is, I suppose, what you do it for: to ready yourself for this lead-in and for in particular that Ashes. To make sure everyone’s peaking for that, and these big games,” Root added.
After a series loss against India earlier this year, Root and his teammates were unable to qualify for the WTC final. Root feels England has the ability to go the whole way for the next WTC cycle despite losing out on the showpiece game.
England is now leading the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka by 1-0 after a five-wicket win at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street on Tuesday, June 29. They were 3-0 winners in the T20I series prior to that.
