Why Joe Root is not playing T20 international cricket: Is Joe Root retired from T20Is?

Why Joe Root is not playing T20 international cricket: The former England skipper played his last T20I more than three years ago.

Former England Test skipper Joe Root is perhaps enjoying the best phase of his Cricketing career as far as the Test format is concerned. Back-to-back centuries in the very first couple of Tests against New Zealand after relinquishing his Test captaincy, saw Root play some outrageous shots including reverse sweeps and ramps towards the third man region for maximums.

He repeated the same during the the rescheduled fifth Test against India at Edgbaston with utmost perfection, perhaps suggestive of the fact that he has all the shots in book to get back into the England T20I squad.

As far as his last T2OI is concerned, the 31-year-old played it back in May 2019, during England’s lone T20I against Pakistan in Cardiff. In fact, Root made his ODI comeback too after a one-year gap in the ongoing three-match home series against India, having last played in the format against Sri Lanka in July last year.

Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes will feature together in England’s ODI squad to face India.

The last time they all featured together in a ODI format was day in 2019… pic.twitter.com/17ZDX095QE

— bet365 (@bet365) July 12, 2022

Why Joe Root is not playing T20 international cricket

Most-capped and recently retired England’s former limited Overs skipper Eoin Morgan had stated before last year’s T20I World Cup in UAE, that Root was indeed in the plans for a place in the squad. However, he ultimately failed to make the cut in the final 15-member squad.

It is worth of a mention that Root was England’s highest run-scorer during the 2016 T20 World Cup in India where his team agonizingly lost to the West Indies in the final. His 249 runs across six games were scored at an average of 49.80 and an impressive strike rate of 146.67.

However, it was primarily due to ECB’s rest-and rotate policy that Root had marked his unavailability in the T20 side post the grand event, and the emergence of some of the most ferocious power-hitters in the side has now made it quite challenging for Root to break it into the T20 side.

Also, ever since the emergence of COVID-19, a packed international schedule has meant that Tests and limited Overs series against different teams have been taking place with very little breathing space, and with Root being a crucial part of the Test side, his entry into the T20I side had taken a further dent.

However, despite it all the champion batter still is quite hopeful of breaking into the T20I side quite soon.