Joe Root, who was born on December 30, 1990, comes from a long line of cricketers. His grandfather captained Rotherham CC in the Yorkshire League for numerous seasons, and his younger brother Billy plays for Glamorgan on a regular basis. Root received cricket scholarships from Workshop College, where he attended, and Yorkshire Cricket Academy, in addition to a Daily Telegraph scholarship at the 2005 Bunbury tournament. In July 2007, the talented batsman made his Yorkshire second-team debut with a fifty.
Root’s rapid climb went uninterrupted, and there was no turning back. In 2010, the ‘kid wonder’ landed a three-year professional deal with Yorkshire after an impressive Man of the Series performance for England Under-19 against Bangladesh Under-19. Root established himself as a consistent batsman after making his County Championship debut at the start of 2011. The major break came the following season when Root delivered an undefeated 222 at the Rose Bowl versus Hampshire in the County Championship.
Root’s consistency won him a Test berth in 2012 when he was selected for England’s historic tour of India. Alastair Cook and his merry men overcame insurmountable odds to win the Test series. Among several outstanding performances, Root’s debut stood out as a baptism by fire.
Root, the youngest player in England’s 15-man World Cup squad, was one of just two English hitters to score more than 200 runs in the tournament. Root scored a century at a strike rate of 110 or higher in his maiden World Cup, but his team lost to Sri Lanka.
