Roots of England’s Ashes success could lie with skipper Joe’s pal and humble Sheffield wholesaler

Skipper Joe Root represents England’s best weapon Down Under following a blistering summer which yielded four centuries and a further two double centuries, with an average score of 66.

The son of Dore needs just 22 more runs to beat his previous-best total in a calendar year of 1,477, set in 2016, and 26 to overtake fellow Sheffielder Michael Vaughan as the highest-scoring Test batsman for England in a year.

Another Test century before the end of 2021 would take Root to seven in a calendar year alongside some of the game’s greats, including Viv Richards, Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar.

The 30-year-old has not looked back since returning to his roots with old pal and Sheffield Collegiate First XI captain Josh Varley after a disappointing summer in 2019.

“Joe was getting a bit of stick at the time,” remembers Josh, 28, who now works for Sheffield-based company Strata Trading.

"That’s when we properly started. We did four or five-hour days of him batting and me on the slinger throwing balls. It was all led by him and he was asking for feedback.

"I just saw it as me helping out. I had to be honest with him to get the best out of him.”

There was a clandestine element to the pair’s rendezvous at Denstone College and Abbeydale Sports Club whereby Josh would tell staff to book a net for him and a guest without dropping a name in.

That, he said, was a subtle way of letting people know he would be in the company of the current No. 1 batsman in the world.

"It was very low key and we kept it that way,” he said.

Josh vividly remembers the day their secret got out.

"It was one of the first Hundred launches, I got loads of missed calls, emails and headlines. I thought ‘wow, all I did was throw balls at him’.”

At the time, Root said of their partnership: "I'm throwing ideas around, using people outside of the bubble. Getting different points of view and different ways of looking at things is nice.

"I do brilliant work with (England batting coach) Graham Thorpe but every now and again when you're out of it, it's quite nice to go to other people.”

Root had managed just one Test ton in 18 innings in 2019 before he linked up with childhood friend Josh in October of that year to make some subtle tweaks to his technique.

At the time Josh was head coach at Sheffield Collegiate, who play in the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League.

The following month Root hit 226 against New Zealand - his highest score since he notched 254 against Pakistan during his best-ever year at the crease in 2016.

This year he has amassed almost 1,000 more runs than England’s second-highest run-scorer, Rory Burns, who is on 479.

“It was very nice when he got his double-hundred because that was literally just after we had worked together,” said Josh.

"We had done a lot of work just before that tour. That was when we did a lot of specific one-to-one days. It was the start of when we were doing it a bit more intense than what we had ever done.”

The pair have been mates for as long as Josh can remember, owing to their parent’s friendship, and his earliest cricketing memories are with Joe and his 29-year-old brother Billy, who plays for Glamorgan.

He said: “Some of my first memories are on the sidelines when we were too young to be playing and summer holidays spending all day every day down at Abbeydale netting.

"When we were that age the club wasn’t as popular as what it is now so me and Billy ended up playing up a couple of years. Joe was always the best player in the team.

"He’s very down to earth, a very solid bloke. He’s been brought up very well and has got to where he is now by all the hard work he’s put in.”

Root still visits Abbeydale to watch his friends and former teammates in action.

Josh added: "On and off the field he’s been a really good guy, that’s not changed. He’s equally as happy to talk to people at the club now as he was before he was Joe Root the England player.

"If he comes to watch a first-team game there’s four or five lads who still just see him as Joe but there’s a few who are like ‘Oh my God that’s Joe Root’.”

He also linked up with his friend-turned-coach this summer for a few refresher sessions.

Josh said: “We had a couple of sessions at Abbeydale when he was resting and wasn’t in a bubble, so that was the first chance we had.

"We exchange texts now and again but we don't tend to talk about cricket much. If he ever needs to talk about cricket with me he will say it and I will follow it up.

"We have both got young families and have both got more in common that we did 18 years ago when we used to mess around in the nets at Abbeydale."

Dad-of-one Josh has a 10-month old son, Leo, who is currently struggling to sleep through the night, which means he’s likely to be awake when play takes place in the early hours of the morning for England fans.

"I’m confident Joe will have a cracking series,” he said.

The first Ashes Test begins on Wednesday.