Former England skipper and ace batsman Joe Root is set to join the Dubai Capitals franchise ahead of the second edition of the ILT20 in the United Arab Emirates. Root has signed a deal with the franchise and will be making his second appearance in an international franchise league.
Predominantly, a resilient test batsman, Joe Root had remained distant from T-20 cricket for a brief period. He last played a T-20I for England against Pakistan in the wake of the 2019 World Cup in Cardiff. Root’s delimitation from England’s T-20I squad has largely been due to his increased workload as Test captain and the evolution of astonishing T-20 batsman David Malan who played a similar role to Root and played at his No. 3 position.
Root’s responsibilities were recently lowered by the ECB by appointing Ben Stokes as Test captain. With this, Root has secretly hinted at his activeness in T-20 cricket. Root has also signed up for the upcoming IPL auctions that are scheduled to take place tomorrow in Kochi.
Interestingly, Root has confirmed his unavailability to ECB for the upcoming ODI series against South Africa for participating in ILT20. This is clearly portraying that the eminent and elegant batsman is trying to play his cards in the shortest format of the game.
Joe Root’s participation in ILT20 will mark his comeback to the T20 Format
Joe Root had previously participated in a franchise T-20 League back in 2018-19. He featured for the Sydney Sixers side at the Australian Big Bash League. Root had made occasional appearances for Trent Rockets and Yorkshire at the Hundred.
Apart from Joe Root, Dubai Capitals have also signed veteran T-20 players Robin Uthappa and Yusuf Pathan from India. Specialist Caribbean T-20 players Rovman Powell and Fabian Allen, Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikander Raza and English all-rounder Dan Lawrence have also been named to strengthen the Dubai Capitals franchise.
The International League T-20 is set to kick start in January 2023 with a total participation of six franchises. The championship will comprise 34 matches including the playoffs. The matches will be conducted across three venues- Dubai International Stadium, Shaikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, and the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
