Joe Root played Salieri to Harry Brook’s Mozart – he was back to his orthodox best

In the aftermath of England’s first-Test victory at Mount Maunganui, Joe Root spoke of his struggle to find his true role in the team that Ben Stokes has so spectacularly refashioned since Root quit the captaincy last spring. Root is the country’s greatest ever runscorer, but the hell-for-leather approach of those around him had raised the question as to what tempo was right for him. Should he keep doing what he had always done, or try to join the crazy gang?

He found an answer on this first day at the Basin Reserve in Wellington. Frankly, the crisis his team found themselves in at 21 for three in the seventh over on an emerald-green surface largely dictated his course. It demanded that he largely stick