LONDON: England captain Joe Root said A.B. de Villiers had done ‘freakish things’ after the South Africa great surprised the cricket world by announcing his international retirement on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old Root is now among the world’s leading batsmen but there are concerns that the burden of captaining England in Tests allied to his desire to play ODIs and Twenty20 Intern­ationals mean the Yorks­hireman is running the risk of burn-out.

But Root, speaking at Lord’s ahead of the first Test against Pakistan, said: “I think it is very different. If you look at someone like A.B., he has had a wonderful career, done freakish things in the game across three formats and he has been a great servant to South Africa.

“But he has been doing it for 12, 14 years, a long time, and by anyone’s standards that is a long career.

“I look at how it is at the minute and when you go from different formats, it give you energy. A slightly different squad, a different way of thinking about the game and that has always been enough for me to be energised. I can’t see how that is going to change any time soon for me,” added Root.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2018