Joe Root showed authority and conviction in captaining England to a first Test victory over South Africa

Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith will be writing exclusively for The Independent this summer. Here he reflects on the first Test...

Root's imagination in the field showed what sort of England captain he will be (Getty)

Naturally, much of the reflection on the first Test of this series will focus on England’s new leader, Joe Root.

I kept a watchful eye on his decision making and body language, which typically set the tone as to the type of leader you’re going to be. Joe plays the game with a lot of energy, something that permeates his batting. That seeps through to others around you, which in turn can help sides get through tough periods within games.

Joe has inherited a side with some of the most respected and experienced cricketers that England has ever produced with the likes of Alastair Cook, Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad making up the team’s core. His decision making was almost faultless, bar a brief interlude on day three.

One of the toughest aspects of being a new captain can be establishing your assertiveness, resisting the temptation to cave in to the opinions of senior players who may feel you should go down a different route. An example would be pulling Anderson, England’s highest wicket-taker of all time, out of the attack when he realised he wasn’t proving effective in South Africa’s first innings.

Anderson may have felt he could make something happen, but you have to go with your gut and believe in your own decision making. I was younger than Joe when I inherited the Proteas captaincy, a side then full of established international players. He’s slightly older than I was, taking over at 26 with a number of years of top quality performances behind him.

It’s evident that the players already follow his lead. Looking back, it was only around the age of 26 that I began to have real conviction in my decisions at that level, and understand the role fully. Joe is the type of person who seeks advice and talks a lot about the game. Those conversations with people within the game will have helped him form a strong idea of how he plans to lead England in to the next era.

Root handled Anderson expertly in the first Test (Getty)

His runs in the first innings will have been a great personal relief. Had Root struggled, the vultures soon start questioning whether the captaincy is affecting your ability to perform your main role in the side. Stacking up a huge score certainly buys him a few games in that respect, and it’ll have been a big boost to him to contribute such a huge score.

In terms of managing his bowlers, the Lord’s pitch dictated how much Root made use of his spinners, but I still took note of how well he managed Liam Dawson in particular. Dawson got some tap in his first four-over spell in the first innings, and Root re-introduced him for his second spell at a good time, enabling the 27-year-old to find a foothold in the game. Root seldom let the game drift, and employed some inventive fields, an early expression of how he wants England to play.

Looking at the South African performance, I’m still convinced that they went with the right XI. They simply failed to take the chances they created for themselves, which when coupled with some simple errors meant the mountain became too high to scale when it came to day four.


 Root was the hero of day one at Lord's as he didn't let his batting become affected by his captaincy 
 (Getty)

My BBC colleague Jonathan Agnew said that the warm-up he saw from the South Africans the day before the Test was the worst he’d ever seen in the build-up to a game. The first innings, where I believe South Africa lost the game, was strewn with errors that will need to be eradicated if this side have any hope of drawing level in Nottingham.

It was always going to be a tough ask for Dean Elgar to step in for one game, and I felt that he let the game play out at times, which you simply cannot afford to do at Test level.

England cashed in on day one when the game was on the line, and it frustrated me to see Keshav Maharaj bowl from the wrong end for much of his spell. Temba Bavuma and Theunis De Bruyn bowling more than Morkel and Rabada in that last session baffled me. I expect South Africa to be far more astute tactically with Faf Du Plessis back at the helm.

Had South Africa taken their chances and kept their foot behind the line, England might have only reached 280/300 – a far cry from the 450+ score they eventually reached. Those 1st innings margins are so tight, setting up the game either way, and it was hard to see the Proteas throw away a strong position after what was almost a perfect start with the ball.

It's a tough selection from a South African perspective ahead of Trent Bridge. The return of Du Plessis coupled with Rabada’s enforced absence give the selectors options as to what the make-up of the side should be. It’s obvious to everyone that South Africa need to rally and find a way to stand up at Trent Bridge. If they can’t, this long tour of England will begin to feel a lot longer.