Joe Root lines up Big Bash stint with Sydney Thunder to enhance Twenty20 prospects

Joe Root has taken the first step to answering his problems in Twenty20 cricket by lining up a deal to play for the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash later this year. 

Root will return to Australia 12 months on from leading England’s Ashes defeat to play for the Thunder in order to increase his exposure to Twenty20. He was left out of the England Twenty20 side against India last weekend and has barely played the format over the past two years appearing in only 11 games since the last World Twenty20 tournament. 

He was surprisingly unsold in the last IPL auction and has been left behind by the ever evolving world of Twenty20.  England’s schedule this winter allows Root and other colleagues time to play in Australia. England’s tour to Sri Lanka ends on Nov 27 and the West Indies tour does not start until the beginning of January. 

James Taylor has been appointed England’s youngest selector in modern times. Taylor, 28, was forced to retire by a serious heart condition two years ago. It was a cruel twist of fate but it has put England in the unusual but beneficial position of having a young selector who so recently played international cricket and is in tune with the modern trends of the game.

He joins Ed Smith, who was appointed lead national selector in May, as England’s two full time selectors supported by a  panel of specialist scouts. Taylor has given up his media work with the BBC as a condition o  joining the England set up full time. He starts work immediately. 

He joins an England team that today will try and work out a method for facing India’s left arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav. If India win at Lord’s on Saturday it will confirm only England's second series defeat since the last World Cup. A year on Saturday will be the final of the World Cup and England’s captain, Eoin Morgan, believes this series is giving his team useful exposure to an India side whose wrist spinners arguably make them favourites to win the tournament. 

England have used the Merlyn bowling machine, invented to combat Shane Warne a decade ago, to help with facing Kuldeep but it did not work at Trent Bridge where he took six for 25.

Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root did not use Merlyn and were the two batsmen most deceived by his deliveries. However Kuldeep dismissed Merlyn on Thursday night pointing out it does not have hands. It is the whirr of arms and fingers that is so hard to read. 

“It’s about looking at it logically in terms of the ability of the guys to genuinely pick him and then work out a method of playing him as well,” said Graham Thorpe, England’s batting coach.

"It’s more of the mental side but it is also about being proactive with our movements at the crease as well against him so if you don’t pick him,  you’re still in a good position to play him as well. From what I’m hearing with my chats with them, it’s not like they can’t pick him s  for me, that’s important in terms of being honest about it because there are options.

"You do need to manoeuver the ball around. And also having the ability to play the bigger shots against him. You need clarity and it’s a good reminder to the team about constantly looking to improve.” 

England’s only real option for changing the team today is bringing in  the extra batsman, Dawid Malan, a good player of spin, for potentially Moeen Ali but both sides are likely to be unchanged.