Joe Root News

The 2025 County Championship season begins on Friday with a full list of nine fixtures across the Divisions One and Two. Here, Mail Sport introduces six young players to look out for.

INSIDE CRICKET BY LAWRENCE BOOTH: The start of the county championship usually means cheap wickets on fresh pitches for 78mph seamers - but it doesn't have to be this way.

RICHARD GIBSON IN LAHORE: During the latest calamitous performance of Jos Buttler's reign as England captain it was hard to know whether to laugh or cry.

RICHARD GIBSON IN LAHORE: It is hard to envisage him being able to play again in this competition - England's final group game is against South Africa in Karachi on Saturday.

Jos Buttler 's side were thrashed by 142 runs in the third and final one-day international on Wednesday as India won the series 3-0.

RICHARD GIBSON IN NAGPUR: Joe Root is yet to give up on a Twenty20 recall for England, despite having not played the format for his country since 2019.

Smith now joins fellow Australians Ricky Ponting, Allan Border and Steve Waugh to have achieved the huge feat.

RICHARD GIBSON IN CHENNAI: Harry Brook has risen to the very top of the international game in recent weeks, but concedes the final frontier faced by his batting is conquering spin in T20.

Mail Sport examines the main areas of focus for a team that has lost 13 of its most recent 24 Twenty20s against major nations and 12 of its last 20 50-over internationals.

EXCLUSIVE BY RICHARD GIBSON: As head coach of Essex, McGrath oversaw a Championship and Vitality Blast double in 2019 and won the Bob Willis Trophy the following summer.

Luke Littler, 17, was awarded second place at SPOTY last night, losing out on the top spot to athlete Keely Hodgkinson.

RICHRD GIBSON: The 25-year-old has been surpassed as No 1 by team-mate Joe Root, returning to a position he has held on nine other occasions during his 12-year international career.

Keely Hodgkinson pipped darts superstar Luke Littler and England cricketer Joe Root for this year's Sports Personality of the Year award.

The 17-year-old was asked what his highlight of the year had been - perhaps receiving a text from Manchester United legend David Beckham?

Half-centuries from Joe Root and Jacob Bethell - his third of a promising debut series - held the hosts up on the fourth morning after England resumed on 18 for two.

RICHARD GIBSON: Harry Brook's match-changing hundred in Wellington has seen him become Test cricket's number one ranked batsman for the first time.

OLIVER HOLT: It wasn't the Panenka penalty that was the best thing about Cole Palmer 's performance against Spurs on Sunday although that was sumptuous and it was audacious.

LAWRENCE BOOTH: Only Root had begun the Test ahead of Brook in the ICC rankings. Yet even after Root scored a century of his own in England's 323-run win, he took issue with the algorithm.

DAVID COVERDALE: Olympic 800 metres gold medallist Hodgkinson has been nominated alongside teenage darts sensation Luke Littler and Real Madrid superstar Jude Bellingham.

It is hard to imagine a more complete win than the 323-run drubbing which secured England's first series victory in New Zealand for over 16 years.

Australia had a first Test to forget against India including a horror day in the field in the second innings. A New Zealand fielder has shown them how it is done against England

The former Australia coach made the controversial remark during his nation's humbling 295-run first Test defeat by India on Monday.

Cricket great Darren Lehmann has outlined why he believes English star Joe Root is a 'rung below' Aussie batsman Steve Smith. Lehmann's view was an instant talking point on X with fans.

NASSER HUSSAIN: Just after lunch, I looked up at a scoreboard that read 118 for six, and down at a surface that shouldn't have produced that kind of total.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: Ben Stokes said sorry to team-mates for being a 'grumpy old man' during his side's 152-run defeat by Pakistan in the second Test.

AADAM PATEL: The former England captain, who played 161 Test matches and scored 12,472 runs was England's leading run-scorer in Test cricket until Joe Root surpassed him last week.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: There was less than half an hour to go on the first evening of the second Test when Shoaib Bashir made the breakthrough England craved.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: Stokes was planning to use himself as third seamer after replacing Woakes, with Potts coming in for Atkinson, finally rested after seven Tests in a row.

NASSER HUSSAIN: There'll be plenty of talk this week about the fact that the second Test in Multan will be played on the same pitch as the first.

Joe Root was hailed as England's greatest ever batter last week, after surpassing Alastair Cook as his country's record run-scorer with a stunning innings of 262 against Pakistan,

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: Ollie Pope hailed one of England's greatest victories after they completed a remarkable innings-and-47-run win over Pakistan on the final morning.

NASSER HUSSAIN: Yes, it is a flat pitch in Multan, but the skill, the concentration and the fitness that Brook and Root showed in the scorching heat was remarkable.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: Brook made 317 in a total of 823 for seven, sharing a record stand of 454 with Joe Root, before England's bowlers reduced the hosts to 152 for six in their second innings.

Runs rained down with abandon on day four of the first Test in Multan, with Brook making a stunning career-best 317 and Root 262.

Root, who made an unbeaten 176, reached stumps with 12,578 to his name - 106 ahead of Cook - as England gave themselves a chance of forcing an improbable win over Pakistan.

NASSER HUSSAIN: I think it has been vital for Brook at the start of his career to have Root at the other end - someone he would have admired growing up and someone he can learn a lot from.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: With 12 minutes to go before lunch on the third day of the first Test, Joe Root punched Aamer Jamal down the ground - and knew the record was his.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: Root has been a key player for England for years, consistently scoring runs in all conditions, and his class at the crease is clear for all to see.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: Root had begun the day on 32, needing another 39 to move past Cook and into fifth place on the all-time Test list, as England replied to Pakistan's mammoth 556.

NASSER HUSSAIN: Root combines the flair of Kevin Pietersen, the penchant for match-defining innings of Graham Gooch, and the hunger for runs of Cook. He's ticked all the boxes you want from a batsman.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: Ben Stokes confirmed he would miss Monday's first Test against Pakistan in Multan, but urged his team-mates to repeat their famous clean sweep here two years ago.

In light of the 2024 Test summer concluding, Mail Sport's LAWRENCE BOOTH has rated the performances of all of England's players below.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT THE OVAL: There's been a restlessness to his batting in this series and it's frustrating spectators as much as it ought to be frustrating Brook at present.

Legendary England skipper Michael Vaughan (inset) has claimed Ollie Pope (left) isn't ready to be captain in the national Test team after struggling in recent victories over Sri Lanka.

NASSER HUSSAIN: JThe last tick - both from a personal and team perspective - for our greatest-ever batter is to dominate with the bat and contribute to a Test series win over Australia.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT LORD'S: Gus Atkinson was named as the official Player of the Match after scoring 118 off 115 balls in England's first innings, also taking seven wickets in the match,

DAVID LLOYD AT LORD'S: He also joined an exclusive group of players - which includes George Headley, Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan - to have scored two centuries at Lord's.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT LORD'S: Having equalled Alastair Cook's tally of 33 in the first innings, Root pulled clear in the second, becoming only the fourth player to score two century's at Lord's.

RICHARD GIBSON AT LORD'S: Root spent only the most fleeting of periods alongside Sir Alastair Cook at the top of the list, having drawn level in the first innings of this match.

DAVID LLOYD: Gus Atkinson continued his bright start to his career with a maiden century as England dominated day two of the second Test against Sri Lanka.

DAVID LLOYD: An England number three averaging 34 is not good enough and he was out to a ridiculous shot again on Thursday. Regardless of the vice-captaincy, this is a crucial series for Pope.

NASSER HUSSAIN: I don't recall Joe Root looking frenetic at the beginning of an innings, even when he was captain, and he was often coming in at 20 for two.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT LORD'S: The celebratory ritual was hardly new to him, but this was special - a 33rd Test hundred to equal Alastair Cook's national record and dig England out of a hole

There is no place either for Chris Woakes - a third member of England's 2019 World Cup-winning squad - or Chris Jordan.

HENRY CLARK: Root and his 12,131 Test runs amassed all over the world prove particularly invaluable. He's been there, seen it and done it, time after time.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT OLD TRAFFORD: England began this summer's Test series against Sri Lanka with a five-wicket win at Old Trafford.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT OLD TRAFFORD: It wasn't pretty, and it certainly wasn't Bazball, but England got the job done, sealing a five-wicket win in the first Test against a determined Sri Lanka.

DAVID LLOYD AT OLD TRAFFORD: Beginning on 22-0, England found themselves in a spot of bother at 67-3 when Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Dan Lawrence were all dismissed cheaply.

NASSER HUSSAIN: The style of batter they have there is crucial because they need players who can counter and have that positive intent but also be calm and composed.

Joe Root's rich form against West Indies has coincided with a rise to number one in Test cricket's batting rankings.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT EDGBASTON: Mark Wood blew the West Indies away with a ferocious spell of fast bowling as England racked up a thumping 10-wicket victory.

England were pegged back by a resurgent West Indies as the hosts ended day one on 38-3 after a fascinating opening day at Edgbaston.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT EDGBASTON: England's hopes of the whitewash many regarded a formality were dealt a blow by three late wickets as West Indies fought back on a topsy-turvy Third Test opener.

LAWRENCE BOOTH: As Shoaib Bashir spun England to victory over West Indies at Trent Bridge, it was a dot ball that confirmed the promise spotted by Ben Stokes.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT TRENT BRIDGE: England exerted control on Day Three of their second Test against West Indies as they closed out play 248/3 during their second innings at the crease.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT TRENT BRIDGE: Woakes admitted the first hour on Sunday morning would be crucial as Brook and Joe Root seek to build on a high-class fourth-wicket stand of 108.

RICHARD GIBSON AT TRENT BRIDGE: The birthplace of Bazball appears to be cooking up another enthralling Test finish with Yorkshiremen once again cast in leading roles.

DAVID LLOYD: Alick Athanaze and Kavem Hodge really turned things round and ticked along at four an over - a real fillip for them after the tourists' showing at Lord's.

NASSER HUSSAIN: This was a decent start to Shoaib Bashir's home Test career, but because of his age and lack of experience there is much to learn for England's rising spin bowler.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT TRENT BRIDGE: England kick-started their second Test against the West Indies with an impressive batting display that saw the hosts eventually bowled out for 416 runs.

England had been going well at 201 for three after lunch, with Ollie Pope well set on 76 and Harry Brook looking comfortable on 36 after replacing Joe Root not long before.

LAWRENCE BOOTH: England have recalled Mark Wood for Thursday's second Test against West Indies at Trent Bridge following the retirement of Jimmy Anderson.

Anderson, 42 later this month, is swapping the 'best job in the world' for what he hopes will be the second when England's Rothesay Test series against West Indies resumes.

England are closing in on winning the first Test of the summer against the West Indies after dominating the action again on day two at Lord's.

The incident led to hostility between the two teams, with England and their fans furious with Australia's alleged lack of sporting integrity.

The 33-year-old had previously been handed the award as part of the 2020 New Year's Honours list for his heroics in England's 2019 ODI World Cup victory.

LAWRENCE BOOTH: A week after hitting 119 against Derbyshire, he eased his way to 156 from just 165 balls, putting on 265 with 22-year-old opener Finlay Bean, who fell for a career-best 173.

Three-quarters of England's male professional cricket stars fear for their safety when travelling home late after matches.

A day after Baker's passing, a video of an interview with the spinner (pictured) on the back of signing a new contract and returning from injury last summer has emerged online.