Joe Root

“I'd love to go and visit Pakistan. It would be a great opportunity to go and play there personally. Unfortunately, it's not my decision to make, but it looks a wonderful country to go and play cricket in.”

“I remember getting hit in the ribs when I was on about eight or nine in my first game, and everyone rushed over, quite concerned. The umpire said to me afterwards, 'If anyone had appealed I would have had to give you out LB!' I ended that innings about nine not out off about 15 overs. I was already digging in - Yorkshire style.”

“I'm not a massive reader, to be honest. I try and fill my time with other things. But I remember getting halfway through a book once. It was 'The Client' by John Grisham, which was quite interesting.”

“The important thing is to stay very strong with my natural game.”

“You can sometimes bowl extremely well and get no reward.”

“There are always different areas in the game you want to develop. For me it's my all-round game in different conditions in different places in the world.”

“You try to make sure you have respect for the opposition but still play to win and play hard cricket.”

“There's always things you want to get better at and learn from but that's something that's quite hard to instil in players.”

“I still like to think I have a pretty good laugh with the other guys in the dressing room and still enjoy a beer and the odd night out.”

“If you're playing against someone, you always want them playing flat out and at their best - so when you are successful you know you've produced a really good performance.”

“I know how important it is that test cricket is my main focus.”

“You learn from the bad games and the bad tours. And, when things are going well, you think about that and you make the most of it. You don't get lazy; you don't rest on your laurels.”

“When you go to Australia you are always asked whether you can perform in hostile environments against high pace and every Australian side I have played against has had guys bowling over 90mph.”

“Coming out of the Ashes in 2013-14 and the World Cup in 2015 I realised how much I wanted to be a force in international cricket.”

“A lot of the things we do in Test cricket revolves around planning for the Ashes series down under.”

“I've always wanted to play Test cricket from a young age and that's what you dream about. But you have to make sure you can contribute regardless of the format.”

“There is no point having team meetings where no one speaks because you don't learn anything.”

“The great thing about T20 is that it only takes one performance. One piece of individual brilliance can win a game and that can change the whole way you approach a tournament.”

“To score runs you have to be pragmatic.”

“The dressing-room environment is very difficult to replicate, camaraderie is very important.”