Joe Root's England Diary: Batting with Eoin Morgan, dealing with rain and teaching Mark Wood guitar
"It's very easy on long tours when you are training so frequently to go through the motions but this tour has been a really good learner for the group that you have to make the most of every opportunity."
Sunday 21 October 2018 19:25, UK
Joe Root blogs on dealing with rain, teaching Mark Wood guitar, batting with Eoin Morgan and Adil Rashid playing chess after England sealed a series win in Sri Lanka…
Having won our ODI series in Sri Lanka with a game to spare, hopefully we can finish really strong in Colombo on Tuesday.
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You are always striving to get better and make big improvements but to be 3-0 up and having won every completed game is a really positive sign.
Eoin Morgan said after our win in Kandy on Saturday that we are yet to play great cricket on this tour and that is something I would agree with.
We want to be the best one-day side in the world and dominate and for that to happen we need to be better than we have been on this trip. That said, to close out games like we have been is really pleasing and shows how far we have come.
I thought Saturday's result proved that - we played some ugly cricket at times but managed to find a way to win the game.
Morgs and I were out in the middle and we knew that if we gave ourselves a nice cushion above the DLS score we would be quite comfortable and that if the game had gone on longer we would have been able to close it out at the backend.
At no stage did we feel behind the eight ball or that control was slipping, although it might have been tighter had Sri Lanka not been called for a no-ball when I played a really bad shot off a full toss and was caught at fine leg!
It was a relief when I turned round to walk to the pavilion and saw the umpire had his arm out! It was a strange bit of cricket - your first thought after the shot is 'Why have I done that?' and then to have that huge slice of luck and be able to continue your innings was very fortunate.
I spoke in an earlier blog about what it's like to be captained by Morgs and he is exactly the same when you are batting with him - cool, calm and completely in control of what he is trying to do.
What you see is what you get - someone who is pretty unflappable, reads the game very well and takes pressure off the guy at the other end. I think that's why we bat so well together. We understand each other's games and complement each other very well.
What I really like about him is the way he encourages you to put trust in your own ability. We put a lot of hard work in in practice and if we want to play in a certain way then he is all for it. If it then goes wrong, all he wants is for us to understand why we took that option.
Saturday's game was affected by the weather again and it certainly hasn't been easy on this trip with the start-stop nature - you are always having to find different ways of adapting and staying on top of your game.
I said in my first column that he how we reacted to the rain interruptions would be crucial and I think we have dealt with it very well. When things you can't control have a big impact on matches and results it can be distracting but we have stayed calm and managed those difficult periods.
We will now be in better shape should weather intervene in a major tournament.
Even in preparation, with not knowing when you will be able to train, you always turn up to practice with real purpose and get something out of it. You can't waste one session.
It's very easy on long tours when you are training so frequently to go through the motions but this tour has been a really good learner for the group that you have to make the most of every opportunity.
When it is raining, I just try to relax, not think about the game too much, enjoy the lads' company and have a laugh. A few of the boys were actually playing chess the other day which is not something you often see in our dressing room!
Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler were having a game and I think Adil Rashid got involved, too. I'm not sure it's Rash's strongest suit…
Some of our middle-order guys, like Jos and Mo, have barely had an opportunity to bat and they are desperate to get out there - I think you saw how keen we were to get going on Wednesday before we got that 21 over a side game in.
It is tough for the umpires - they want games to go ahead but they have to make sure it is safe for the players. Thankfully we did get a match in and even, though it was shortened, I thought it was the right thing for us to play. No one got hurt and it was a really entertaining match.
I've brought my guitar on tour and have had a bit of time to learn some new songs. I wouldn't say playing guitar came naturally to me, it was definitely a slow burner!
I had Mark Wood round the other night and tried to give him a few pointers. It was a long hour and a half… I think Woody views himself as a rock star now and hopefully I'll have a few more videos to show you.
I usually browse YouTube or ask someone like Woody, who is really into his music, what songs I should learn. Mark Saxby, our masseuse, and Phil Scott, our strength and conditioning coach, also like their tunes.
There is a real fluctuation in genres among the players, though, and sometimes in the dressing room it is quite hard to define whether something actually is music! I think Ben Stokes has the worst taste in music. I can only describe it as noise!
I'll be putting my guitar down for a bit as my family have just arrived so I will enjoy some downtime with them and then get back into training ahead of that last one-dayer.
We then have the T20 next Saturday before I put my Test-match head back on. I have already been looking through some footage, trying to get ready and making some clear plans. I am really excited to get going but my full focus now is on ending the white-ball part of this trip on a high.
Jimmy Anderson will be joining us, of course, for the Test series and hopefully he is a bit happier than he looked during Burnley's 5-0 defeat at Manchester City on Saturday.
To be fair, he normally looks quite grumpy anyway but I'm sure getting out here and playing cricket will get him in the spirit of things.
Watch the fifth and final ODI, in Colombo, live on Sky Sports Cricket (channel 404) and Sky Sports Main Event (channel 401) from 9.30am on Tuesday.
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