England’s Test captain Joe Root still hopes to break into England’s strong batting line-up for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup, claiming that the controversial rest-and-rotation policy was “being put behind us”. However, he last played a Twenty20 international in 2019 and, currently, England are at the top of the T20 world rankings.

But although England are blessed with several big hitters, Root’s more traditional methods of run-scoring could prove effective on the slow and low pitches expected at the T20 World Cup later this year. Notably, the marquee event will be played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman after the rest of the Indian Premier League 2021 games take place in the UAE as well.

However, the decision came in place after keeping the current situation of COVID-19 in India in mind as the event was earlier slated to be played in India only. He showed his calibre with an unbeaten 79 off 87 balls against Sri Lanka in Tuesday’s first One Day international at Chester-le-Street as well.

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“As a batter, all you can do with the quality and strength in depth in that (England) T20 side is try and score as many runs as you can and try and affect as many games in a positive manner as you can,” Joe Root said on Wednesday. When he was asked if he would like to play in the T20 World Cup, he replied: “Of course. Every player wants to be part of that squad.”

“I am desperate to play for England across all the formats as much as I can,” he added ahead of Thursday’s second ODI against Sri Lanka at the Oval. “In a way it’s not a conversation I need to have (with the selectors). It is their decision and I am sure that they will pick the squad they think will win the tournament — all I can do is force my case,” Joe Root further claimed.

Meanwhile, some senior players like Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes have been rested at various times as per the player rotation policy but the Test captain hopes they will have the full strength when they will play the five-match Test series against India at home before the Ashes tour of Australia later this year.

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“We are coming into a period of time now where rest and rotation is put behind us. With Covid, and the amount of cricket that we’ve had, there’s been compromises made over different formats and different teams. We now have 10 very hard Test matches against two brilliant opposition teams coming up but it is a great opportunity for us to play some strong cricket and, if everyone is fit and available, we will have a good team ourselves. I’d like to think that over the next five Test matches we’ll be trying to play our strongest side,” Joe Root concluded.