Joe Root admits that his chances of making England's T20 World Cup squad look difficult

After having finished as the third-highest run-scorer in the ICC T20 World Cup in India four years ago behind India’s Virat Kohli and Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal, England’s Test captain Joe Root finds himself at the crossroads as far as his career in the shortest format of the game.

Root, who averaged 39.6 and scored at a whirlwind strike-rate of 138.78 in his first 20 T20 Internationals, has seen his stock fall steadily in the past four years and that could be put down to lack of opportunities at both International and franchise-level. He averages 29.9 and strikes at 107.16 since the last T20 World Cup.

With him not finding a spot for himself in the T20I squad for the series against South Africa, Root is not beating around the bush and he admitted on Saturday that his chances of making it to the ICC T20 World Cup squad later this autumn look pretty bleak.

“I think being honest, looking at the squad there is at the minute and the players that are performing around the world in T20 competitions, I’m probably not in the best XI,” Root, who will return home following today’s third and final One-day International against South Africa, said as quoted by the Daily Mail.

“For that reason, I’m being left out and that’s part and parcel of cricket. Sometimes you have to take that on the chin,” he added.

Test cricket still the first priority for Joe Root

Root has been consistently overlooked by the Indian Premier League franchises and with England’s International summer coinciding with the T20 Blast, he honestly doesn’t see an opportunity for himself to prove his worth in the shortest format of the game. “It’ll be difficult for me to get opportunities to prove a point and play in domestic cricket so it is what it is,’ he added.

The Test captain reiterated his love for white-ball cricket but once again admitted that Test cricket remains the pinnacle and his biggest priority. “I love white-ball cricket full stop but Test cricket is a big priority for me. It is frustrating but it is important, I suppose, to take rest when you can like a lot of the guys have done here before the T20s start.” Root added.

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