Joe Root fancies his England players have turned a corner with their attitude after battling back from a horror start to the first Test against West Indies and ending it as the only team striving for victory.
Though thwarted by a docile pitch in Antigua and two resolute batters in Nkrumah Bonner and Jason Holder, it still proved a solid turnaround after a slump to 48 for four on the first morning that brought memories of their Ashes collapses flooding back.
This owed much to Jonny Bairstow’s sparkling 140 in their first innings 311 all out and then Root and Zak Crawley both passing three figures in the third to allow a sporting declaration; Root, trying to use this tour as a clean break from Australia, was happy.
“It’s much nicer this way,” replied Root, with a smile, when asked how it compared with the Sydney Test in which the team were nine down and clinging on for their only other draw of what has been a chastening winter.
“I’m really proud of the team. I thought the attitude throughout the whole week was just fantastic.
“That is really promising and it’s filled me with a huge amount of confidence. Jonny in particular was magnificent. He likes to stand up in those situations and hopefully he can keep showing the world how good he is.”
Root scarcely dwelled on his own 109 in the second innings other than to say it atoned for his dismissal in the first innings, instead preferring to highlight the impressive nature of Crawley’s 121 that ended a 19-month wait for a second Test century and saw the 24-year-old address some of his past shortcomings.
He said: “The period where I was most impressed with Zak was when he’d made 50 and Alzarri Joseph and Kemar Roach bowled a couple of really good spells on fourth stump.
“Zak was very disciplined, left the ball extremely well, defended straight and waited for them to come to him. I think that shows great maturity and a massive step forward for him – to manage the situation as well as he did, even if the ball wasn’t going all over the place. That’s where we need to improve as a batting unit – not gifting opposition wickets – and he’s set an example to the guys around him.”
Root played down concerns over a lack of threat with the ball offered by Chris Woakes and Craig Overton – two of the seamers charged with stepping up in the absence of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad – pointing to a pitch that forced the pair to focus chiefly on economy after a disappointing new ball burst on day two.
Jack Leach was described as “incredible” after match figures of five for 136 from 74.3 overs that represents his heaviest workload in a Test match, while Ben Stokes also defied pre-match predictions after his comeback from a side strain to play a full part with the ball and bowl with impressive hostility. The key to this, he explained, was more honest conversations about his readiness for spells out in the middle.
There is a quick turnaround before the second Test in Barbados on Thursday and thus Mark Wood, absent on the final day and experiencing “acute pain” when trying to test his elbow problem in the morning, seems unlikely to feature.
England are holding off from calling up a replacement player from home, however, with Ollie Robinson starting to make encouraging strides after the back spasms that ruled him out here and Matt Fisher and Saqib Mahmood also in the squad.
