Joe Root eyeing spot in England's T20 side

ANI

Published : Oct 23, 2019, 1:52 pm IST

Updated : Oct 23, 2019, 1:52 pm IST

Root was dropped from England T20 squad which will play against New Zealand.

Dubai: England Test skipper Joe Root wants to "keep getting better" of himself and is eyeing spot in the T20 side.

"For me to get into the T20I side, it will mean that I have to keep getting better. If someone like Tom Banton comes in and sets the world alight, I've got to try to force him out in the limited opportunities I get to play," International Cricket Council (ICC) quoted Root as saying.

Root was dropped from England T20 squad which will play against New Zealand. England will tour New Zealand to play five T20I matches and two Test games.

Tom Banton was picked in the T20 team and if he gets the opportunity in the playing XI it would be his debut game.

"If that happens, it raises the standard of English cricket in that format. That's the food chain that cricket is sometimes. You have to be at the top of it otherwise you get swept away and eaten up," Root said.

England had a long and busy home summer with back-to-back long assignments, first with the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019, where they triumphed after a thrilling win in the final at Lord's, followed by the Ashes series against Australia that ended in a 2-2 draw.

Root was part of England's World Cup-winning squad and also played in the Ashes against Australia.

"I obviously scored runs in 2016 final and I've always felt that when I have had a block of that format, to really get stuck into it, I've generally done pretty well," Root said.

"I felt that was the case with the last T20 World Cup. It took me a couple of warm-up games over a two-week period beforehand to really get back into it," he added.

England's 15-man T20I squad: Eoin Morgan (captain), Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Sam Billings, Pat Brown, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Joe Denly, Lewis Gregory, Chris Jordan, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Matt Parkinson, Adil Rashid, James Vince.

England 15-man Test squad: Joe Root (captain), Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jack Leach, Saqib Mahmood, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Pope, Dominic Sibley, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes.

England will play the first T20I against New Zealand at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on November 1.