Joe Root showed why he is world's best with West Indies century - I wouldn't swap him for anyone

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https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/cricket/joe-root-showed-worlds-best-16526791

 

Joe Root showed why he is world's best with West Indies century - I wouldn't swap him for anyone - Stokes

 

 

When the pressure is at its greatest and all eyes are looking to you to stand up, can you deliver? Can you keep calm and show off the skills that you've spent a lifetime perfecting?

That is not an easy thing to do, even for some of the most talented sportsmen and women, but those who can like Joe Root or Virat Kohli are rightly appreciated for that ability. And they are a class apart.

There will be a debate raging on amongst fans as to who the best batsman in the world is right now and that's part of the fun of sport.

All I will say is that I wouldn't swap Joe for anyone else.

 

The batsmen are producing the goods nicely, but I've got to give a nod of appreciation to my two North-East nuggets, Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett who are both doing fantastic jobs for us with the ball at the minute.

It is great to see Woody bowling so well and backing up game after game. He's giving us a real threat behind Woakesy and Jofra Archer, while Liam just continues to pick up poles for fun and it is normally the big wicket we need like Chris Gayle.

 

So far the World Cup is going as well as I'd hoped and off the field it was a treat to be able to celebrate my birthday with my wife Clare by going to see Hugh Jackman's show.

He is an incredible performer and made the night when he gave me a high five during the show. We were lucky enough to meet him and he's absolutely as good a bloke as he appears.

Despite the injuries we head into our next couple of games against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka feeling really positive and looking to keep the momentum going.

Virat is a brilliant batsman but I'm not sure he can come on and burgle a couple of wickets in quite the same way that Joe can!

Joe is actually an underrated bowler. He's got a bit of a golden arm and can do a job for us whenever needed.