English Test captain Joe Root is confident with the recent success in the longer-format in international cricket as he believes that they are on the right track to regain the no.1 spot in Test cricket.

Only once England has achieved the no.1 ranked spot in Test cricket history and that was between August 2011 and August 2012. As England has already secured the three-match Test series on the Sri Lankan soil, even the third Test has yet to be played, England is set to climb up on the second position in the ICC Test ranking.

Prior to the third Test at Colombo (SSC), starting on Friday (November 23), England Test skipper Joe Root has seemed very happy with the team’s performances in recent Test cricket.

Mentioning the team as learning and improving, Root said, “In terms of having a settled batting line-up, especially a top six, it would be ideal to get that settled down. But if we’re not in that place and not in that position, we’ve got to keep playing to our strengths.

Also read: Joe Root on the Test series victory in Sri Lanka: It’s very special

“We’re not the finished article, we’re still learning and still improving, but we’re going in the right direction and sometimes you have to tinker with things to get to where you want eventually. From the start, we tried to plan out how to get to number one over a period of time and we’re pretty much on track to where we want to get to.”

Also read: Stuart Broad admits he couldn’t make a big effect in the ongoing Sri Lanka tour

Wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow is likely to return in the Test squad from the third and final Test of the ongoing Sri Lanka series. Despite Bairstow was fit before the second Test of the series, the new wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Foakes was selected in the playing XI who scored a brilliant match-winning century in his debutant Test match (the first Test of the series).

Praising Bairstow’s recent batting performances, Root believes the right-handed batsman would be a good option for the no.3 position in the Test cricket.

Root said about Bairstow, “I think it’s a really good opportunity for Jonny to take his batting to another level. In the last couple of years, he’s been statistically one of the top 10 batters in the world in Test cricket. It would be nice to see him really grab number three by the scruff of the neck and use it as an opportunity to start really consistently scoring big runs in this format. You’d like to think he’s got everything there to make number three a long-term option for him.”