Exclusive | Joe Root's runs help, but the person he is makes a huge difference to the squad: Jason Roy

With the T20 series between India and England done and dusted, the focus now shifts to the three-match One-Day International series that gets underway on Thursday, 6 February in Nagpur. And with the ICC Champions Trophy set to begin exactly two weeks from now, the upcoming series between the two former ODI world champions effectively will be a dress rehearsal for the mega event.

Both teams will have senior players who were not part of the T20Is joining their respective squads for the one-dayers. The trio of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja will be returning to white-ball cricket after months with Rohit continuing to lead India in Tests and ODIs. For England, batting star Joe Root will be appearing in coloured clothing for the first time since their underwhelming campaign in the 2023 ICC World Cup in India, with the visitors confirming his place in their playing XI for the series opener at Jamtha on Thursday.

Exclusive | ‘You’ll never be overconfident going to play India in India’: England opener Jason Roy

Root had featured in that World Cup along with senior all-rounder Ben Stokes, who had come out of retirement for England’s title defence. The latter, however, misses out on England’s Champions Trophy campaign due to a hamstring issue that came back to haunt him during the recently-concluded Test series in New Zealand.

The former England captain’s white-ball numbers might not be as impressive as his statistics in Test cricket - in which the 34-year-old has racked up 12,972 runs in 152 appearances at an average of 50.87 with the help of 36 centuries, making him one of the greatest of all time in the five-day format.

The former Rajasthan Royals batter has scored half as many runs (6,522 at an average of 47.60) in 171 appearances) in ODIs, and has a total of 893 runs to his credit from 32 T20I appearances. One therefore, would be forgiven for not discussing Joe Root the white-ball cricketer in the same breath as Joe Root the red-ball cricketer.

‘Root an absolute superstar, he’s a legend’: Roy

His former teammate Jason Roy, however, not only praised “absolute superstar” Root as someone who holds the batting order together through the middle over, but also a “fantastic team man” whose presence makes a big difference regardless of the team or format that he’s representing.

“He’s an absolute superstar, he’s a legend. He’s the anchor. He’s the guy who holds our team through the middle overs, and a fantastic team man. Going away from cricket for a second, the way he trains, the way he works around the game, the way he talks about the game, his honesty around the group, those sort of things are what makes him the player he is.

“Obviously his runs help, but the person he is makes a huge difference to the squad or team he’s in,” Roy told Firstpost in an exclusive interaction on the sidelines of the third season of ILT20, where he is representing Sharjah Warriorz.

After their disappointing run in the 2023 ICC World Cup, where they finished seventh in the 10-team table, England’s T20 World Cup title defence in June last year had ended in a semi-final defeat against the India, the very team they had eliminated at the same stage in 2022.

And while Jos Buttler has managed to keep his job as England white-ball captain, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had parted ways with limited-overs head coach Matthew Mott due to mixed results, with his red-ball counterpart Brendon McCullum assuming charge starting with the recently-concluded T20I series against India.

Despite their mixed white-ball fortunes in the last couple of years, Roy includes England among the teams expected to reach the semi-finals of the ninth edition of the Champions Trophy.

“England, Australia, India and the next one’s quite tough. It’s hard to look past New Zealand, who do well in big tournaments. Pakistan have some very good players coming through. So I’m just going to sit on the fence and name just three,” Roy responded when asked to name his picks for the Champions Trophy semi-finalists.

Roy revisits England’s 2019 World Cup triumph

Since making his international debut in 2014, Roy has represented England in 116 ODIs and 64 T20Is besides five Tests, scoring 4,271 and 1,522 runs in the 50 and 20-over formats respectively. The South African-born batter was the first-choice opener for the Englishmen for the better part of his career, primarily during Eoin Morgan’s reign as captain.

The highlight of his career was in the 2019 World Cup at home in which he was part of the Morgan-led English side that defeated India in the group stage and knocked ‘Old Enemy’ Australia out in the semis before beating New Zealand in the final, albeit in controversial fashion.

Revisiting England’s triumph over the Black Caps in front of a sold-out Lord’s on 14 July, 2019, Roy added that being able to make meaningful contributions to his team’s triumph made the victory even sweeter from his perspective while adding that he missed the feeling Morgan and Co had as a group.

“Yeah, of course, winning the World Cup is obviously a huge, huge highlight for me from a from a team perspective as well. We, we worked well together for those four years leading into that tournament, you know, we put everything into that tournament as well. And to get the rewards that we did was fantastic. Individually was able to contribute during that tournament as well, which was, which was an even better feeling.

“I think looking back on it now, having been out of the frame for a couple of years, you know, I really miss it and miss that sort of that feeling we had as a group, the way we put teams under pressure, the way we felt when we went on tours.

“And, you know, there’s some of my best mates have made through the game are playing international cricket. So definitely something I missed quite a bit, but yeah, there’s still some left in the tank for me to make some more memories, but for sure that was a huge highlight,” Roy said.

Roy currently shares the dressing room with Black Caps pace legend Tim Southee, who was part of the Kane Williamson-led New Zealand side that finished runners-up for the second consecutive edition of cricket’s showpiece event. And when asked if he ever brings up the topic of England winning the World Cup on boundary count, even if in jest, the 34-year-old shook his head.

“No, it’s a still a bit of a sour taste in his mouth, I reckon. I think they still feel that they were hard done by and whatever, but, no, not really made to be honest with you. I think he’s a, he’s sort of guy, he doesn’t sort of judge himself on, on the cricket field. You know, he’s a, he’s a good person off of it. And I think that’s what helps when it comes to being a captain and a leader,” Roy signed off.