Joe Root honoured for fantastic year in England colours

'To be able to say I've contributed makes me really pleased and proud'

Joe Root swept the England awards on Monday (PA)

If any confirmation was needed that Joe Root has been England’s outstanding performer over the past 12 months it came when he swept the board at the team’s Player of the Year dinner in Leeds.

The Yorkshire batsman won a hat-trick of awards, taking the Test, limited-overs and fans’ Player of the Year gongs, rich reward for a golden run of form that has seen Root excel across all formats and in all conditions.

That he even saw off the challenge of Stuart Broad for the Test award says it all. Broad produced the two most memorable moments of England’s year, his phenomenal Ashes-clinching spell of 8 for 15 that destroyed Australia at Trent Bridge last August run close by the 6 for 17 in Johannesburg that sealed England’s series success against South Africa in January.

Root, though, scored hundreds in both those matches, arguably equally-important contributions to England’s success. The 25-year-old’s form in limited-overs cricket has also been outstanding, Root was England’s leading batsman during the team’s recent run to the World T20 final in India and his four hundreds helped power the one-day side’s wonderful renaissance.

“The reason you play is to contribute to England winning,” says Root. “During the last 12 months or so, we’ve come a long way and kept improving. To be able to say I’ve contributed makes me really pleased and proud. These personal awards are great, but they don’t mean as much as the ones you win together. If we can continue to win a few things together, then we’ll have a really exciting time ahead.”

If Root’s double hundred for Yorkshire against Surrey in the County Championship last week is any indication, then he should continue his stunning form when England’s first Test against Sri Lanka starts at Headingley on Thursday. It’s all a long way from two years ago, when ahead of the first Test of the summer – also against Sri Lanka – Root was smarting from being dropped for the final match of the horrendous Ashes series in Sydney.

His attitude was questioned in the wake of England’s 5-0 mauling by Australia but Root’s form in Test cricket since has been stunning – 2,451 runs at an average of 68.08. The painful first-round exit from the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand a year later gave Root yet more motivation to sustain a run of form across all forms that sees him rival Australia's Steve Smith, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson and India’s Virat Kohli as the best batsman in the world.

“Coming out of the Ashes [in 2013-14] and the World Cup [2015] I realised how much I wanted to be a force in international cricket,” says Root. “I knew then how much work I was going to have to put in if that was going to be the case. I have worked very hard with a lot of the coaches and spoken to some experienced players and managed to put some stuff together that is working at the moment.

“The pain of those defeats helped spur me on. You need that desire and that hunger. You learn from the mistakes you make. You learn from the bad games and the bad tours and, when things are going well, you think about that and you make the most of it. You don’t get lazy; you don’t rest on your laurels. You make it count. This game can be brutal. As soon as you get comfortable, it bites you. You have to stay on it all the time.”

Root lists the World Cup as his lowest point of the past 18 months. The highlight? “All of it, really,” he says.

“But it’s hard to look past winning the Ashes. Australia were the one side I’d not really scored big runs against. I was very keen to put that right. Then going to South Africa and coming away with a Test series win was a fantastic effort and it gives us a lot of confidence going into this summer.”

Anya Shrubsole, meanwhile, was named the England Women’s Cricketer of the Year, with Charlotte Edwards, the recently deposed captain, winning the fans’ award. The Essex batsman Dan Lawrence was named the England Development Programme Cricketer of the Year, with Callum Flynn the Disability Cricketer of the Year.

Joe Root since start of last English summer

Tests: Played: 14, Runs: 1,316, Average: 54.84, Hundreds: 3

ODIS: Played: 14, Runs: 770, Average: 59.23, Hundreds: 4

T20: Played: 11, Runs: 411, Average: 41.10, Strike-rate: 145.22

Root since 2013-14 Ashes

Tests: 24, Runs: 2,451, Average: 68.08, Hundreds: 7

ODIs: Played: 48, Runs: 1,946, Average: 46.33, Hundreds: 8

T20s: Played: 16, Runs: 503, Average: 33.53, SR: 133.06