Joe Root finally delivers on promise to make England No 3 spot his own

This time, Joe Root promised, it would be different. His elevation to No 3 for the tour of the West Indies was his seventh stint in the role in Test cricket. The previous six had all ended because of the sense that Root’s multifarious gifts were best deployed elsewhere.

In the summers of 2018 and 2019, Root had told the management of his new wish to bat at three, but it seemed borne more of the sense that it was what he should be doing rather than it was what he wanted.

“I’ve expressed in the past that I prefer batting at four but I’m ready to take on three now,” he said before the tour. “It’s the first time it’s sat comfortably with me. It’s the first time I’ve been really excited and not slightly apprehensive about it.”

As Root pulled Jayden Seales for a single to bring up his century, leaping in the air and then holding his arms aloft while the fans in the Kensington Oval sang out his name in unison, it was impossible to discern any apprehension about his role combining batting at three with captaincy. In 35 innings at number three from 2016, Root had failed to score a century; now, he had scored consecutive hundreds there. In the process, he had extended a run of form which has elevated Root’s standing in the English game to being a certainty for a post-World War Two English XI: this was his eighth Test century in 36 innings, going back to the start of 2021, and 25th in all.