Yorkshire batsman Joe Root hopes to be included in theEngland squad for their tour to India after winning the Cricket Writers Club'sYoung Cricketer of the Year award. Root has been tipped as a potentialreplacement for retired skipper Andrew Strauss at the top of the Englandbatting order and the 21-year-old admits he has received a call from theselectors ahead of the squad announcement.
Root wouldn't be drawn on whether he will be named in thetouring party, but his form this season suggests he will have been firmly inthe selectors' discussions. Root, who learned his early cricket at SheffieldCollegiate CC as did former England captain and opening batsman MichaelVaughan, scored 746 runs in 15 first-class matches this year, including a bestof 222 not out, to help Yorkshire win promotion from the Second Division of theCounty Championship.
He also showed his international pedigree by scoring acentury for the England Lions reserve team against West Indies. "I havehad a call but I can't say anything more than that. There is a press conferencetomorrow morning. You always want to play at the highest level," Root saidafter being given his award by former England batsman David Gower at the CWCaward ceremony in London.
Meanwhile, the inaugural County Championship Cricketer ofthe Year award went to Somerset batsman Nick Compton. Compton, 29, could alsobe in the reckoning for promotion to the Test squad after coming within a whiskerof becoming the first batsman in almost a quarter-of-a-century to pass 1,000first-class runs before the end of May.
He scored 1,191 runs in championship fixtures at an averageof more than 99 - with four hundreds, seven 50s and a best of 204 not out. Compton,the grandson of England great Denis Compton, beat Durham fast bowler GrahamOnions to the award.
