Age of social media means living your cricketing life as content

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In the Durham Riverside dressing room Joe Root speaks softly, haltingly, a white towel rolled and draped around his slender shoulders. “Some of the things you’ve achieved in your career have been extraordinary.”

Under a malfunctioning TV screen Craig Overton absent-mindedly twirls a tuft of hair on his ankle, his tired eyes fixed on Root. “There’s so many kids now who want to bat, bowl and field because of the way that you have gone about it.”

Bowling coach Neil Killeen fiddles with the ring-pull on a can, listening intently. Jos Buttler fixes an Eeyore stare of such glum intensity into the floor that even the fibres of the carpet feel sad. The victorious South Africans can be heard celebrating in the adjacent changing room. As the noise grows louder Buttler flinches ever so slightly and rubs his temples. Root presses on.

“I think it’s also important to remember that some of the things that you’ve done have captured a nation. They’ve bought people to the game that have never watched it before.”

"Kids now want to bat, bowl and field because of the way you have gone about it and done it in an England shirt."@root66 with some lovely words after @benstokes38 played his final ODI ❤️ pic.twitter.com/mcGrmPyN18

It’s a quietly powerful and emotional speech by Root, who continues to show his class on and off the field. He ends its by rummaging in a box, pulling out a bottle of wine and padding barefoot across the changing room, past the laundry bags, discarded bowling boots and boxes of Moretti to present it to his friend and teammate Ben