Joe Root

Root won his first Test cap in India in 2012. Coming in at Nagpur with England 139 for five, he batted 289 minutes for 73 to secure a draw and the series. His maiden Test century followed against New Zealand at Headingley, built alongside Jonny Bairstow in a 124-run stand, as England won by 247 runs. Asked to open in the 2013 home Ashes, he made 180 at Lord's and gained a central contract. He scored 173 runs at the 2013 Champions Trophy, the most by an Englishman, but struggled in the return Ashes. Player of the Series in a West Indies ODI series, he then broke his thumb and missed the 2014 World T20.

An unbeaten 200 against Sri Lanka at Lord's opened his 2014 summer, and two hundreds against India followed. In the 2015 Ashes he hit 134 at Cardiff and 130 at Nottingham, totalling 460 runs at 57.50 as England regained the urn. He later posted a career-best 254 against Pakistan at Lord's, and gathered 491 runs at 49.10 in India in 2016.

Root succeeded Alastair Cook as Test captain in February 2017. Home series wins over South Africa and West Indies preceded a heavy Ashes defeat in Australia. England drew 1-1 with Pakistan and beat India 4-1 in 2018, and his 125 in Sri Lanka made him the first English captain to win a series there since 2001. He called the 3-1 comeback win in South Africa in 2019-20 his proudest result. In 2021 he made 228 and 186 in Sri Lanka, a double hundred at Chennai and six centuries in the year, but after a 4-0 Ashes loss in 2021-22 he gave up the captaincy following the West Indies tour.

Freed of leadership, Root thrived under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, reaching 10,000 Test runs at Lord's against New Zealand in 2022 aged 31 years and 157 days, equalling Cook's youngest-to-the-mark record. Rajasthan Royals signed him in 2023 for INR 1 crore. The youngest in England's 2015 World Cup squad, he hit a century against Sri Lanka in a losing cause, and at the 2019 tournament England won he scored 556 runs from 11 innings. He also bowls right-arm off-breaks.