Joe Root

The modest Sheffield lad is on course to become England's best ever batsman, writes Philip Collins

- Philip Collins

"The nirvana for batting", Joe Root once said, "is to have nothing in your mind. You can just watch the ball and play.

Root's mind must have been empty on Sunday in Cardiff as he took England to an unlikely victory in the one-day international against the West Indies with 166 runs, scored as unobtrusively as always. There has never been an England batsman more adept than Root at scoring off good balls without seeming to do anything. Stumbling slightly as he runs down the wicket, his bat held crossways in two hands, Root moves, without apparent labour, to his next triumph.

As Michael Vaughan, a former England captain and Root's mentor from his Sheffield club days, has said: "Root is the best we've had." Root does indeed sit astride English cricket. He has scored more Test runs (13,006) than anyone else, at an average (50.8) higher than anyone for half a century.

He is England's most prolific batsman in one-day internationals. Only four players in the history of the game have scored more Test runs than him and, at the age of 34, Root has time to become the most prolific run scorer of them all.

Alastair Cook, the captain who gave him his debut for England in 2012, describes Root's style as an "inevitability". And that perhaps is a clue to why, as heralded as he is, Root may yet be under-appreciated. He does not beg for attention with personal tics like the Australian Steve Smith. He does not command the crease like Virat Kohli of India. Root merely runs onto the outfield, hops to the side for a couple of apologetic jumps and then takes guard to bat.