But who is the 'phantom snipper' haunting England's dressing room?
Wednesday 12 August 2015 13:21, UK
In his latest exclusive column for Sky Sports, Joe Root reflects on England's Ashes celebrations, becoming the No 1 ranked Test batsman and the 'phantom snipper'...
I’m absolutely buzzing after winning the Ashes and, like all the lads, I’m dying to get back out there and finish on a high at the Oval.
Ours is a very special team environment and we made sure we enjoyed our success on Saturday, the majority of us leaving Trent Bridge sometime around 10pm even though the match was over by 11.40am!
There are some very excitable characters in the squad - which made the celebrations all the more memorable, but it does mean you have to keep your wits about you at all times!
It took me a while to discover I’d been caught out by the ‘phantom snipper’, who had sneakily cut holes in my socks so big that both my feet went straight through. He didn’t spare my boxers, either.
I wasn’t the only victim so whoever he is, he’s going to get a rude awakening when he gets found out!
Congratulations
It was humbling to see how many people stayed on to enjoy the celebrations with us and it’s fair to say I’ve never been in quite so many selfies! The support that we’ve had over the last few weeks has been like nothing else.
I’ve had lots of lovely personal messages, both about winning the Ashes and becoming No 1 in the Test batting rankings - an achievement I’m very proud of.
One of them came from Michael Vaughan, who said ‘congratulations - I hope you last a little longer than the three weeks I did’!
I’ve obviously still got a lot of work to do - not least overseas where I've only scored one hundred - and I’ll keep trying to play the situation as well as I can and keep putting in the hard yards in practice.
For me it’s all about knowing where my strengths are and grooving those as well as I can, while also improving the areas where I’m not on top of my game.
Impression
As you can imagine, there were plenty of drinks swilling around after our win and Ian Ward ended up wearing a lot of them when he came into our dressing room to interview a few of us.
When I saw Jimmy spraying Wardy with champagne I thought ‘I can’t miss out on this - I’ve got to absolutely soak him’ because you don’t get many opportunities to spray the commentators!
It’s our way of making them feel welcome!
I also thought I’d give my Bob Willis impression a go although since then I’ve had quite a people tell me that my impersonation doesn’t sound anything like him, so I’ll obviously have to keep working on it and get it out again sometime to show I’ve improved!
Bob’s fiery response on The Verdict was brilliant; admittedly he did look very angry but bring it on, Bob, is what I say!
Chances
I also thoroughly enjoyed watching some of the legends - Nasser Hussain, Ricky Ponting and Michael Atherton - taking part in a slip catching demo.
The worst possible scenario for anyone in that situation is to drop an absolute sitter and unfortunately for Nasser, that’s exactly what he did.
He always seems to be on the wrong end of things - I remember Trotty’s reaction on the Lord’s balcony in 2013 when Nass missed a catch during another demo, and then there was the time he got pinned on the grill by Strauss while batting in the Zone.
The ball before his howler he dropped a much more difficult chance that was comparable to the one that Belly didn’t quite hang on to off Warner, off Stokesy’s bowling. It was just one of those times you get in the perfect position but the ball just doesn’t stick.
Unfortunately that’s how it can go sometimes in the slip cordon but in this series we’ve managed to hang onto the majority of chances that have come our way. We spent a huge amount of time catching balls on our pre-Ashes trip to Spain and it has certainly paid off.
Desire
Stokesy’s catch in the first innings, which was as good as I’ve seen, was proof of that in itself. Somehow he took the ball behind himself. It was an unbelievable bit of fielding, which complemented the brilliant way that Stuart Broad bowled.
That first morning was almost perfect from a bowling point of view - and we knew we had to back him up in the field to cash in.
When you play against Australia you know at some point there’s going to be a partnership because they simply don’t capitulate so it was a very strange feeling to see all those wickets fall so quickly.
The pressure we built on them by bowling in the right areas was brilliant and whenever there was half a chance, we took it.
Credit has to go to all the bowlers but Broady in particular. With Jimmy not being able to play, he had to step up as the senior bowler and, boy, did he.
That spell was ample testament to his determined character and the strength of his desire to win because he was under plenty of pressure, not least because he began the day on 299 wickets.
That’s why he’s so high in the Test bowling rankings - because he’s got spells in him when he can take the game completely out of the opposition’s hands.
I’ve been lucky enough to see him do that a couple of times now and hopefully he can do it again later next week. It would be amazing if we could go on and win 4-1.
Stylish
If that were to happen, it would of course mean that Michael Clarke would bow out of international cricket with another defeat.
I’ve always admired the way that he’s played the game. He’s been a very stylish, easy-on-the-eye batsman.
As a young lad coming through I looked at him and thought ‘wow, that’s a great way to play the game’.
He’s had an amazing career for Australia and he should be very proud of all the achievements he’s accomplished throughout his career.
Surreal
I was in a world of pain on Sunday so I went along to Abbeydale Park to get some fresh air and try to clear my head.
My brother Billy was playing for Sheffield Collegiate so I thought I’d pop down and see how he was getting on and while I was there it was nice to repay the favour and serve him some drinks at the drinks break, just as he did during the Test.
It was quite a strange feeling coming home and going back to everyday stuff like cooking and chores around the house while thinking ‘we’ve just won the Ashes’.
In a couple of days I’ve gone from full-on celebrating to clearing up empty bottles and putting them in the dustbin. It’s all quite surreal!
Winning the Ashes still hasn’t sunk in yet and I don’t think it will for a long, long time.
Watch The fifth Ashes Test live on Sky Sports, starting at 10am on Sky Sports Ashes on Thursday 20th August. You can watch without a contract on NOW TV, while our Ashes Events Centre - the best of Sky Cricket's analysis at your fingertips - is available on our iPad app.
