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IND vs ENG: England's star Test batter Joe Root has reckoned that he wants to repay skipper Ben Stokes for all the support that he received when he was England's Test skipper between 2017 to 2022. Root, who has scored overall 13,0006 runs in the longest format, has scored 3,117 of those runs in the last three years and after playing in 36 Test matches after Ben Stokes became the skipper.

In the beginning, Root did find it hard to make a place for himself in the Test side, ever since he relinquished his position from captaincy. But he is in some sublime form, as he bats at a staggering average of 56.67 and he had the best days of his career during this period. As per Root, the best way to help Ben Stokes is by scoring runs consistently.

“Ben did so much for me as my vice-captain, now it’s my turn to give a bit back to him. It was difficult and weird coming back into the team after being a leader. I didn’t want to get in Ben’s way or step on his toes, but I wanted him to know I was there to support him," Root was quoted as saying on SkySports.

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“I knew a big part of that was scoring runs. I wanted to make sure I could affect games with the bat, and clearly, if I was following his lead as a former captain, it sends a strong message to anyone coming into the team or not as established as myself," he said.

Brendon McCullum became England's Test head coach way back in 2022 and thus built a strong partnership with Ben Stokes and that's how the term 'Bazball' was introduced. Their aggressive approach to sport has brought in a lot of changes and still Root has revealed that there is more to this approach than what is visible.

“It has become the most fun time of my career. Playing the way we play, the environment that has been created. The job Ben and [head coach] Brendon [McCullum] have done has been fabulous, and so much fun has come with it," he added.

“It might not always get reported how it is – I don’t think Bazball is the right way to describe it. It has been a big change and is different to how a lot of teams play, but there is a lot more method to it than is probably perceived," he concluded.

Ben Stokes would be dependent on Joe Root's sublime form for the five-match Test series against India, which will begin on Friday. The Shubman Gill-led side would be without the services of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, as they had announced their retirement from the longest format earlier this year, but a new and young team can still pose a threat to the hosts.

India’s squad: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana.

England’s squad for 1st Test: Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Ben Stokes (c), Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes.