Joe Root says guilt at not being able to support Jos Buttler during his captaincy is driving the 34-year-old to continue in limited-overs cricket under Harry Brook.
On Sunday, Root became England's leading ODI runscorer, a feat capped with a career-best 166 not out to chase down a target of 309 in the second ODI against West Indies in Cardiff, sealing a series win in the process. It follows his ascension to the top of the English Test charts last October, when he moved beyond Sir Alastair Cook's tally of 12,742 in the first Test of the Pakistan tour.
Upon reaching 42, Root passed the previous highest of 6,957 achieved by Eoin Morgan. As impressive as Morgan's runscoring exploits were, his captaincy was legacy-defining, overseeing a white-ball revolution that sent England to the top of rankings, capped off by winning the 50-over World Cup in 2019.
Root, England's top-scorer at that tournament with 556 runs, was a vital cog in Morgan's machine. However, with priorities shifting, particularly in the final years of his own Test captaincy, he found himself playing less and less 50-over cricket. Even without the Test captaincy during Buttler's tenure, Root ended up playing just 25 of a possible 47 ODIs.
That included the dismal 2023 World Cup campaign, and an equally poor Champions Trophy earlier this year, which ended in Buttler's resignation. Those tournaments sandwiched a 2024 in which Root played no white-ball cricket for his country.
Now, with eight ODIs under his belt in 2025, and an 18th hundred in the bag, he is back to being at one with the format. And he admits his renewed drive comes from wanting to support Brook in the way he felt he had not with Buttler.
