"First Thing Joe Root Said...": Andrew Strauss On England Captain's New Batting Position In Tests

Andrew Strauss, the interim managing director of England Men's Cricket has revealed that skipper Joe Root himself instigated the move to bat at No.3 in the upcoming Test series against West Indies. While batting at No.4, Root managed to score 1,777 runs last year including six hundreds in the 17 Tests he played.

"The first thing Root said in selection was that he was very keen to bat three moving forward. That came from him; that was his request. And I think everyone agrees that that's probably a healthy thing for the England cricket team at the moment," Strauss told Sky Sports News, as reported by ESPNcricinfo.

"Our issues have been in the top three, top of the order. So we're going to see a new opening partnership out there with Alex Lees coming in and Joe's stepping up to No. 3 - that gives a bit of space in the middle order for some of those less experienced players to show what they can do but also show what they can do more consistently, which has been the big problem," he added.

England Men's selection panel, consisting of Andrew Strauss, interim head coach Paul Collingwood and head scout James Taylor, on Tuesday, named a 16-strong squad for the three-match Test tour of the Caribbean starting next month.

Eight players - James Anderson, Dom Bess, Sam Billings, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Haseeb Hameed, and Dawid Malan - who featured in the recent Ashes series, missed out on selection.

Promoted

The three-match Test series forms part of the ICC World Test Championship. Joe Root's team will be looking to climb the rankings after a disappointing start to the second edition of the Championship. At the end of the two-year cycle, the top two teams will compete in the ICC World Test Championship Final due to be