'Well Deserved Legend!' - Joe Root Hails Sports Personality Of The Year Ben Stokes

Ben Stokes became just the fifth England cricketer to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. The campaign launched by ECB and its cricketers prompted people to vote for the all-rounder and he leapfrogged Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton in a country where cricket took a back seat even when a World Cup was being played.

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Following the win, Stokes has been receiving wishes from his fellow cricketers. Joe Root, his Test captain, also heaped praised on the all-rounder and referred to him as a legend in his latest tweet. “Well deserved legend!” he wrote on Twitter.

Well deserved legend! pic.twitter.com/pQ15zZ8klO

— Joe Root (@root66) December 15, 2019

Stokes played a pivotal role in England’s World Cup 2019 win and the historic win in the third Ashes Test in Leeds. In the World Cup final, he played a knock of 84* off 98. The ‘bat of god’ incident also played a crucial role in the match ending in a tie. The Super Over was also a tied affair and England won on the boundary count.

In Leeds Test of Ashes 2019, Stokes scored 135*, adding 76 runs for the tenth wicket to lead England to a famous win.

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He became one of the most talked-about sporting personalities in the UK and was the front-runner for the award following his heroics in 2019.

Talking of Root, he was recently dropped from the T20I squad for the tour of South Africa which puts his participation in the T20 World Cup in doubt. He decided against putting his name forward for IPL 2020 auction and will have a tough chance to make it to the T20 squad ahead.

Root remains to be a pivotal member of the ODI squad and will soon be leading Three Lions in Test series against South Africa.

The England tour South Africa includes four Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is. The squad saw James Anderson and Mark Wood make their comeback in the longest format.