Joe Root stands alone after old mate Ben Stokes runs out of road

<p>Root and Stokes have been friends since they were children – now England’s leading Test scorer must go on even as Bazball comes to its end</p><p>Joe Root and Ben Stokes are great mates; they’ve played with each other since they were children representing Yorkshire’s and Durham’s youth teams. Root even confessed this week in a <a href="https://x.com/englandcricket/status/2071695432439226818">moving dressing-room tribute</a> that Stokes had taught him his first swearword. There’s something symbolic in that, it feels almost like Stokes has been doing the same to English cricket over the past four years.</p><p>“It’s been a hell of a ride mate, I’ve loved every minute of playing alongside you,” Root says in the speech. “I’m so grateful I got to spend the journey with you.” Stokes is clearly choked up listening to his comrade pay tribute, and also wonderfully uncomfortable in that particularly English way when someone is being earnest and speaking from the heart.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jul/01/joe-root-stands-alone-after-old-mate-ben-stokes-runs-out-of-road">Continue reading...</a>