Root lauds England's character in comeback win

It hasn't been the easiest first year in charge of England's Test team for Joe Root. A record of eight defeats from 16 matches suggests as much and at times, the captaincy has looked to be such a burden. Today, however, the smile was back.

After a poor performance in the first Test, and the resulting cacophony of criticism which resulted, the second Test victory at Headingley was much-needed. It is England's first win since they beat West Indies at Lord's last September and it came in commanding fashion too but despite the victory, nobody is getting too excited. As they showed at Lord's, England still remain a flawed side.

For now, though, a victory is a victory and Root's team should enjoy it. It was a harsh winter in Australia and New Zealand and a poor start last week in home conditions. They have copped their fair share in the press of late and deserve credit for a far better performance here. There may be more struggles down the road but for now, they can relax.

Failing to win the series was, however, a disappointing start to the Test match summer and Root, billing the performance at Headingley as "a really good step in the right direction", isn't getting carried away. He was, he said, determined not to "paper over the cracks" that have been evident for the last nine months. "We have to make sure we don't find ourselves in those positions like we did last week," Root added.

"We've generally had a very good record at home so in some ways it is disappointing [to square the series]. But it would be wrong to think like that. We've responded well this week and hopefully, if we can continue doing the things right around the game, we'll be able to perform more consistently."

That's the million dollar question for England, though. How do they produce more consistent performances? Trevor Bayliss said him and his coaching staff hadn't been giving any different tactical or technical messages in the lead-up to the second Test yet the result and performance were wildly different. How can that be?

"We've set our stall out for where we want to get to," said Root. "We've decided we want to go about things differently in preparation and we have to give that a chance to work. If we continue to stick to that and keep approaching games of cricket like we have this week, we will start to see more consistence performances on the field."

So, what positives can England take from this series? Jos Buttler looks to have found his groove in the Test arena at the third attempt, Dom Bess showed plenty of promise with bat and then ball while Stuart Broad, despite calls for him to be dropped before this match, looks somewhere back to his best. There was a decent enough Test debut for Sam Curran too.

Root was particularly pleased with England's batting performance in Leeds after the slapdash effort at Lord's. He thought their first innings 363 was worth "at least 100 more" on a surface which continued to offer assistance to the bowlers throughout and there were certainly fewer poor dismissals than in the first Test. "The approach from the whole batting group was excellent," Root said.

Perhaps criticism of senior players in the build up - with former captain Michael Vaughan calling for Broad to be dropped - had geed the team up. It certainly looked to have sparked the team into action after Lord's. "I asked the group to play with pride and I think you saw that on the field," Root said. "There's an element of that which comes out of criticism, you want to prove people wrong.

"To play at this level for a long period of time like our senior guys have, you have to have that within you. That's why they are record breakers for this country. They need to find that feeling and use it to put in performances like that."

As Root admitted, there are still cracks in this team. England's bowling attack is too heavily reliant on James Anderson and Broad and there are questions about Keaton Jennings, recalled for this match, and Dawid Malan in the top four. Bess has impressed with the bat but despite three wickets on the final day, it's too early to tell if he will be a force in Test cricket with the ball, and England's fielding too often lets them down as well.

A victory after eight Tests without one was, however, all England needed this week. Although he didn't admit it, surely Root was feeling relieved that the rot had finally been stopped. "It's more pleasing than anything," he said. "We had to show a lot of character. I asked for a lot of things this week and everything I asked for was delivered on the field. It's now about replicating that more consistently around the actual games.

"We know we're not the finished article and we've got to work hard to get to our goal."