ENG VS NZ: I Want To Win Games For Ben Stokes: Joe Root After Match Winning Century Against New Zealand

Joe Root, the former England Test captain, said he wants to win games for the new England captain Ben Stokes, who has won games under Root’s leadership.

Root, who stepped down as captain in April this year, hit a match-winning unbroken 115 runs off 170 balls to help England win the opening Test at Lord’s by five wickets and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

It Feels Great To Win A Test Match: Joe Root

“It feels fantastic, more than anything for us to have won this Test match after such a long time. It’s been so enjoyable,” Root said at the post-match presentation.

Hopefully, we can use this as a way to step forward. The number of times Ben (Stokes) has won us Tests under my leadership, it’s a great chance for me to give back to him.  I couldn’t wish for a better person to be leading this team,” he added.

I love batting. I want to score as many runs as I can and win us as many Test matches as I can. As long as I’ve got the energy and the drive to do it, I’ll do it”, he further said.

Root became the 14th player in the longest format of the game to reach 10,000 runs, and the second Englishman to do so. On the fourth day of the first Test, he reached the goal. He hit his 26th Test century and surpassed 10,000 Test runs along the road.

Only Alastair Cook (12472) has more runs for England than Root. Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian legend, leads the list of most Test runs (15921). The second Test between England and New Zealand will begin on June 10 at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

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