“I am quite happy where I am at the moment”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

England batsman Joe Root has revealed that he doesn’t want to open the batting during the upcoming tour of South Africa.

Root revealed that he likes batting at number four and is scoring a lot of runs at the position, but England’s failure to find a suitable batsman to open the batting with captain Alastair Cook could see him be promoted up the order.

“I am quite happy where I am at the moment,” Root told Sky Sports. “I feel that I am contributing to the side quite regularly and feel quite comfortable there but obviously we will have to see what happens down the line.”

However, Root acknowledged that he will bite the bullet and open the batting with Cook should there be no other choice.

“Not ideally but sometimes you have got to put the team first,” he said. “If that is what needs to happen then that is fine, but I do feel that I am quite used to that role now (at number four) and have been quite successful there, so I would quite like to stay there.”

But, Root’s chances of opening the batting are slim as England are likely to try out Alex Hales as their new opening batsman.

When asked if Hales can form a winning combination with Cook at the top of the order, Root said: “Definitely. You saw the way he played in the one-day game in Abu Dhabi (against Pakistan) where he scored a magnificent hundred. That will give him huge amounts of confidence leading into the tour.

“We have got a couple of warm-up games leading up to that first Test match so I am sure whoever gets the nod will have to perform extremely well in those as well.

“The squad we are taking out there has huge amounts of talent in it and whoever gets that opportunity (to open) will be wanting to grasp it with both hands and put their name forward for a long period of time.”