How Root urned it for England

It was, of course, too good an opportunity to miss. Joe Root smiles back from the cover, an Ashes winner's medal jangling next to one for the Player of the Series, the tiny replica urn in one hand and the Waterford Crystal version in the other, a blond sunbeam of victory and virtue. Root, who also rose to No. 1 in the ICC batting rankings during the series, might be a member of the iPad generation but his publishers were confident English cricket's golden boy could help shift a few hardbacks, too.

There are plenty of comparisons to be drawn between Root and the previous prodigy off the rank, Alastair Cook. Root, who recently turned 25, is really too young to produce a substantial autobiography, just as Cook was when Starting Out: My Story So Far was released in 2008, a couple of years after his debut. Cook would have a far more interesting book in him now - though there is little prospect of an imminent post-Pietersen captaincy tell-all; Root, meanwhile, has gone down the "Ashes diary" route, which allows for a fairly contained focus on a surprising and eventful year rather than striving for bildungsroman significance in such a fledgling career.

Root's initial rise is charted in a couple of concise chapters, although perhaps surprisingly there is no mention of the handmade miniature bat placed in his hand at two days old by father Matt. A mythological omission, but there are still useful clues as to the way ahead.

Like Cook, the young Root was so small he could barely hit the ball off the square, forcing him to come up with a more dexterous technique in order to manipulate bowlers for runs. When Root's growth spurt did come, it threw his batting so out of kilter that he felt "trapped in an alien body"; there is an echo of this in his shambling gait and bobbing marionette stance, though he seems to have largely overcome the tendency to fall over and be out lbw.

Root's busy, bustling style was born out of necessity - he was told by England Under-19 coach Mark Robinson that he scored too slowly for one-day cricket - but it has become a calling card, embossed by a sharp increase in his Test match strike rate after being dropped at the end of the 2013-14 Ashes and leading to a central role in England's limited-overs sides. It is there that his experience diverges from Cook's, and the section on England at the 2015 World Cup (yes, they were there briefly) is probably the most enlightening part of the book.

Cook was, of course, removed from the ODI captaincy weeks before the tournament but England still went in with a strategy shaped under his three and a half years in the job. They duly flopped, sticking to an antediluvian game at a time when ODIs had never been more flooded by runs. Root recalls the 121 he scored against Sri Lanka in the group stage - his highest score in 50-over cricket - as his lowest moment, after England's seemingly respectable total of 309 for 6 was comfortably eclipsed with nine wickets and several balls to spare. "The containment game, of sitting back after posting a good score, seemed a little outdated," he writes.

England have subsequently hoverboarded their way back to the future in ODIs, with Root a Marty McFly presence in the top order. He is unlikely to ever be a power hitter in the mould of Chris Gayle or Brendon McCullum but a change to holding his hands higher in his stance - prompted by sessions with the more explosive Jos Buttler - has added to his range. That was coupled with a new mentality in the run-soaked series against New Zealand, as England vowed to play "no-fear" cricket instead of the "old safety-first approach we had gained a reputation for".

There is clearly a blast furnace of drive and ambition beneath the angelic exterior but Root is also an immensely likeable - and cheeky - member of an England side that seems to have caught the public imagination once again (even if the BBC Sports Personality judges are yet to notice). Sniggering reports of a "phantom sock-snipper" at work during the Ashes are counterbalanced by Root's fogey-ish observation that he likes to have a cup of tea before batting. Elsewhere, there is an acknowledgement of the importance of friends and family beyond the game, underpinning a healthy desire not to be seen simply as a "cricket robot".

Modern players do still exist in something of a bubble, and there are few tales of Botham-esque excess. On the contrary, Root, having been photographed out on the town in Nottingham, subsequently elects to skip England's celebrations after clinching the one-day series against New Zealand at Chester-le-Street. Such maturity perhaps reflects the influence of girlfriend Carrie, as well as the fact that Root and Yorkshire team-mate Gary Ballance are flatmates no more: "During the 2012 season, we were both told in our appraisals that if we had any aspirations of playing for England we should no longer live together."

The rest of the diary is focused, understandably, on "bringing home the Ashes", a Test-by-Test account that makes for fairly prosaic reading - as well as highlighting the lack of imagination involved in contemporary sledging (sample, Nathan Lyon to Root: "Mate, can you put some deodorant on, you stink!"). Root's feud with David Warner, dating back to a punch thrown in a bar two summers previously, is settled via some light banter and a jokey photo posted on Twitter - something Cook would never do. But Root, the man once dubbed "craptain" by his Yorkshire team-mates, is already skipping nimbly along his own path to greatness and may even have inherited Cook's Test mantle by the time England and Australia next meet. There will doubtless be more golden opportunities to come.

Bringing Home the Ashes
By Joe Root
Hodder & Stoughton
322 pages, £20