Senior mate Joe Root advises Haseeb Hameed 'not to rest on his laurels'

England’s latest batting sensation Haseeb Hameed has received a dose of wisdom from his senior mate Joe Root who has urged the 19-year-old not to rest on his laurels following the impressive start to his Test career. Root encouraged his young colleague to respond to his early success by working harder for the future while praising his “remarkable” second-innings half-century in Mohali

“The only advice I gave was, make sure you don’t go back to county cricket at the start of the summer and rest on your laurels,” Root said. “Don’t think: I’m a Test cricketer now.

“It’s an opportunity to prove to everyone in county cricket that you are there for a reason. You have opportunities to make some really big scores, to keep learning and to keep improving. He has the opportunity to put the good work he has done in India into his game and continue to develop the way he has done.”

While Hameed showed a glimpse of his skills in temperament in his debut Test and in the second Test at Vizag, it was his show of commitment in the last innings of the Mohali Test, where he played with a broken finger, which earned him a lot of respect and adulation not only from his teammates and media but also from Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli.

Hameed now returns to England for an operation on his hand following a serious break of his little finger. But any danger that he might let the praise go to his head – and, to be fair, it doesn’t seem as if there was much danger – will have been dispelled by Root’s gentle words of warning and encouragement. Hameed returns to England having made an excellent impression. Aged 19, he already looks one of more composed batsmen in the side.

Root’s words are both well-intentioned and wise. As he found after an encouraging start to his own career, Test cricket is hugely demanding and the pain of being dropped at the end of the Ashes tour of 2013-14 continues to motivate him.

So while Hameed’s start has been exciting, Root wants him to be ready for the challenges ahead and to know there is much, much more to achieve. He also warned that more will be expected of Hameed now and that will bring different challenges.

“The way he played with a broken hand the other day was remarkable,” Root said. “For such a young lad to show composure, to manipulate the strike and also hit some of the best spinners in the world for boundaries was very, very impressive.

“For a 19-year-old lad to come into this environment and be so composed and mature; you watch him practice, and you would think he had played 60 or 70 games. It’s great to see someone come in with that attitude and hopefully, that stays with him for a long time.

“He will have different expectations in the future and that might be a different challenge. But he has got a very good head on his shoulders and he should be proud of what he has done so far. Now it is about managing those expectations and being realistic: it’s going to take time to keep developing and it might not always go how he wants. But sometimes you have to have those little tumbles to get right to the top. I’m sure that if he does have some hard times, he’ll get through it.