Root hopes England can build on Lord's success

Joe Root said Wednesday that England would look to carry on from where they left off against New Zealand at Lord's during the second and final Test at his Headingley home ground.

England skittled out New Zealand for just 68 at Lord's on Sunday to secure a 170-run win that left them 1-0 up in a two-match series heading into the second Test, which starts on Friday. "The guys played exceptionally well over the week," England batsman Root told Sky Sports on Wednesday. "That last day was really good so we are taking a lot of confidence from that into this week.

"We want to win and we will definitely be going out there to do that. We want to prepare as best we can and hopefully we can get things right and start off well," he added. Last week's match was Root's first Test in England and he responded with knocks of 40 and 71, valuable innings in the context of a low-scoring clash. Now he is looking to follow that up with more runs on his Yorkshire home ground, where pitches have generally aided batsmen so far this season.

"It is amazing. It is great to have the opportunity to be here and I have loved every minute of it so far," Root, who only played the first of his five Tests to date in December, against India in Nagpur, said.

"The (Headingley) wicket varies from game to game. This year quite a lot of runs have been scored on it so it will be interesting to see how it goes this week," the 22-year-old added.

AFP