For a singer, possessing a five-octave vocal range is proof of ultimate versatility. From the deepest bass notes to the whistle-register tones, it is a span that very few human voices are blessed with.

For a batter, an equivalent can be found in having skills to excel across formats. From the slam-bang universe of T20 cricket to the toned-down world of the 50-over game to the slow-burn realm of Tests, tackling all three successfully makes one float in rarefied air.

Across six days in mid-July, Joe Root showed why he may be one of those batters. Admittedly, the Englishman’s exploits came in three ODIs against India, but his ability to play innings of such contrasts, and play them so well, proved that even in this era of ultra-specialisation, he was an all-pervading cricketer.

Masterclass

In the first fixture in Birmingham, he made an unbeaten run-a-ball 76 but found very little support as England lost by six wickets. In the second at Cardiff, though, his 99 not out (133b, 9×4) was a masterclass in how to grind opponents to dust as he carried the home side to a four-wicket victory in a 234-run chase.

In the decider at Lord’s, he made a swashbuckling 74 from 48 balls, a knock embellished by audacious reverse-sweeps and reverse-scoops, as England racked up a mammoth 387-run total and eventually stopped India 27 runs short. A series-leading 249 runs, without even being dismissed once, earned the 35-year-old the much-deserved Player-of-the-Series award.

“I mean… some player he is, right?” gushed England coach Brendon McCullum. “He’s played a number of match-winning games for us, and he just continues to not just lead with his batting, but also educate other guys.

“Today [July 19] was a nice blueprint for some of the other guys. Just in identifying the tempo that you can operate at in one-day cricket versus maybe Test or T20. We’re very lucky to have him and he continues to get better and better,” added the Kiwi.

In fairness, Root does not need this late-career validation to remind the world of his greatness.

In Tests, his tally of 14,114 runs is second only to Sachin Tendulkar’s 15,921. He has played 166 matches, made 41 hundreds and averages an impressive 50.58. So much so that he is back as England’s full-time captain — a role he performed from 2017 to 2022 — after the retirement of Ben Stokes.

He may have played just 192 ODIs, but he has accumulated 7826 runs at an average of 51.15, with 20 tons and 48 fifties. He is 35th in the run charts, but only three men above him average 50 or more — M.S. Dhoni, A.B. de Villiers and Virat Kohli. In England’s maiden World Cup-winning campaign, he top-scored with 556 runs.

Hunger and desire

Yet, his recent purple patch is evidence of his hunger and desire to evolve. From 2020 to 2024, Root made just 666 ODI runs from 25 visits to the crease at an average of 28.95 and no hundreds.

But since the start of 2025, he is the highest scorer in the 50-over format with 1304 runs from 21 innings.

His average of 81.5 is the best for anyone who has played three innings or more, and he has struck at a healthy strike-rate of 93.74. He is joint-top with Kohli for centuries (four) and has made a remarkable nine fifties.

“I just didn’t play a lot of it [one-dayers] and probably lost the rhythm of the game slightly,” Root said in Cardiff about his lean phase.

“Sometimes you come back into things and you’re not in as good a form as you’d like, and it doesn’t work out how you want it to and it can snowball.

“More than anything, it was just about trying to get back to the rhythm of the game, understanding what my role looks like in this team and trying to deliver on that as often as possible.”

It is safe to say that Root has understood his role all too well. World champion in 2019, England’s 50-over game had slipped into a state of decay after the disastrous title-defence in 2023. Between trying — and mostly succeeding — to preserve the primacy of Tests and chasing the T20 moolah, ODIs had become a neglected middle child.

The defeat in the first one-day contest at Edgbaston to India was England’s 20th in the previous 30 matches, and leading into the engagement against the Men in Blue, England had lost six out of eight bilateral ODI series.

But with back-to-back triumphs against Sri Lanka (January 2026) and India, England is in recovery mode ahead of the World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia late next year. And Root has played a pivotal role in this turnaround, having scored 111 not out, 75 and 61 away in Lanka too, another series-high.

“Having worked with Baz [McCullum] has changed the way that I look at the game,” Root had said in August 2025. “I’ve got less technical, I’ve become more about trying to manage the game better and finding ways of problem-solving.

“It’s been very refreshing to have someone with a very different way of looking at things come and add a huge amount to my game. He’s been brilliant.”

Root’s white-ball revival comes at a time when the 50-over game is at a crossroads. Recently, there were even whispers that it could be shortened to 40 overs a side in order to make it more appealing to present-day cricketers and the modern-day audience, both of whom seem to have short attention spans.

Hand-holding generals

Seen through a different prism, one-dayers are pregnant with possibilities and ripe for innovation, for they give a platform for players with diverse skillsets.

The fact that three of this era’s best batters in Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Root continue to play the format is testimony to its standing. They can be the hand-holding generals and lead-inspirers.

“One of the biggest challenges for this team is that the young guys who are coming through, and anyone who comes into this team in a little while, do not have a wealth of experience and understanding of 50-over cricket,” Root said about the next generation of English cricketers.

“We are not exposed to it anymore and there is not that element of grounding that happens before you get to this [international] level like it does elsewhere in the world. So there are going to be times when guys have to learn on the job and learn quickly.

“You’ve just got to find different ways of doing it. You find yourself on a really good pitch and you need to get 400 for a par score, you’ve got to have a range of game… right?

“Everyone who plays T20 cricket can manipulate the field and take the game on. [But] when you find yourself in a situation, and on a surface like that [Cardiff], can you find a way of doing it ugly and just getting yourself across the line?”

Shining virtues

Humility and selflessness were the other virtues of Root that shone through. He said he never missed an opportunity to learn from watching Kohli and Rohit bat and credited them for being “miles ahead” and for having “moved the bar and changed goalposts for everyone”.

In Cardiff, he gave up the chance to score his 21st ODI hundred as Gus Atkinson collected almost all the runs when 19 were needed and Root was already on 98.

“I told him to just get it done,” Root said. “It’s all about winning and there’s no better feeling than being there at the end when you chase something down.”

At Lord’s, with England scoring at a rollicking rate, Root had sounded out McCullum to retire him out if he was unable to march in step with his teammates.

“He did sort of mention at one stage that if we didn’t think that he was going to be able to clear the ropes, then we could feel free to retire him out. And then he was 70 [74 n.o.] off 40 [48b]. So I’m not sure he was as confident in himself as we were. That, again, is a testament to his selflessness and ambition for the team”.