Cricket in 2018: Team wise top batsman in Tests

2. Joe Root – England:

Apart from the fact that Joe Root has led England to some big series wins at home and abroad, the 27-year-old right-hand batsman also had a successful individual run in 2018. Ranked No. 4 in Test batsmen’s list, Root scored 946 runs in 24 innings during the year at an average of 41 plus with three hundreds – two of which saw England winning – against India and Sri Lanka. In terms of run aggregation, the England captain ended third to Kohli and Sri Lanka’s Kushal Mendis in 2018.

Root paired his good run with the bat with impressive captaincy also. Under his leadership, England thumped India 4-1 at home and Sri Lanka 3-0 in their den, winning a Test series in the island nation after 18 years. Root though has had his critics for not being able to convert fifties into hundreds as much England would have loved to see him despite being a top order batsman but the England captain has scored consistently nevertheless. The year 2018 was his second best after 2017 in terms of scoring runs in a calendar year. He scored 983 runs last year.