“We think it is a really important part of your journey, as an international player, that you come in and you want it to feel like it's the pinnacle of the game. That you want to come back into that environment. You don't want to think, 'Well, I'd much prefer playing for Sussex,' or your county.”

English international cricketer, born 1990

Joe Root is an English international cricketer, born in 1990. He plays Tests and ODIs for England, represents Yorkshire in domestic cricket, and has been reappointed captain of the Test side, after first leading it from 2017 to 2022. Root is known as a prolific run-scorer and, by March 2026, had become the leading scorer among active batsmen, England’s highest run-scorer, and the second-highest run-scorer in Test history. He was part of England’s 2019 Cricket World Cup-winning team, where he scored the most runs for England, and he has topped the ICC Test batting rankings ten times.