Joe Root in his first Test as skipper breaks a trend in place since 1993

Joe Root’s first assignment as the captain of the England team in the Test format will begin when the English team takes on the visiting South African side in the first Test at Lord’s. As a captain, the first task for Root was to pick the squad, which could inflict the damage on their opponents and Root has announced the squad much ahead of the encounter.

In the pre-match interviews, the English skipper announced that Hampshire’s left-arm orthodox Liam Dawson would take his place in the playing XI. Middlesex’s Toby Roland-Jones would be the unlucky one to miss out on a spot in the team, with leggie Adil Rashid also a part of the playing XI.

With both the spinners, who turn the ball away from the right-handed batsmen, England would be playing a Lord’s Test for the first time with two spinners in their squad since 1993.

Liam’s character is exceptional

Root said: “I’ve decided on the team, Liam is going to play. Toby is the unfortunate one to miss out but he’s really impressed everyone with the way he has gone about his business. Liam’s character is exceptional – the way he bowled in India and so far this season has been brilliant. He’ll bring us a lot of control and a bit of depth in our batting as well,” said the skipper when asked about the left-arm orthodox.

Yorkshire’s Gary Ballance is all set the come at No.3, while the Root himself would bat at the No.4 position.

“Gary is going to bat at three. The way he has played this year and the amount of runs he has scored has been excellent. Hopefully he will get off to a cracking start this week and show everyone that he’s an international cricketer. I look at the team and I think it’s got great balance. The guys are raring to go and really looking forward to tomorrow.” concluded the positive-looking Root.