A YEAR away from history is Matthew Fisher’s view of Joe Root and his England Test side after their famous opening Test win against India in Chennai earlier this week.

Captain Root underpinned a sixth successive away Test win with a second double century of the year - a first-innings 218.

England won the final three Tests to clinch their series in South Africa last winter before winning 2-0 in Sri Lanka last month, when Root posted scores of 228 and 186.

Home and away, England have now won their last four Test series.

After the ongoing series in India, they host the same opponents at home this summer as well as world number one ranked New Zealand.

They then travel Down Under for an Ashes series either side of Christmas.

“This is a very, very big year for England, and if Rooty can be in form for the whole year and England win in India and Australia, it will put him up there amongst the very best players ever in the world in my opinion,” said Yorkshire fast bowler Fisher.

“Players get judged on their performances in big games and big series, and there are non bigger than India and Australia.

“In terms of captaincy, Ricky Ponting gets so much respect for the runs he scored and the series won with the Australian team he had.

“And I think Rooty could go into a similar category if England win these series.

“I read a tweet the other day that said since England won the series in India in 2012, India have only lost one Test (against Australia in 2017).

“That is incredible.

“The way Root and Anderson performed in particular, you just don’t have any words.

“Rooty, you can see his plan, but the bowlers can’t do anything about it because he’s executing it so well.

“He’s at the top of his game.

“In that first innings, it felt like he could have done whatever he wanted.

“He was just playing low-risk cricket, and every shot he played seemed to come out of the middle of the bat.

“But he could probably have gone and got a 50-ball hundred if he’d have wanted.

“He’s in the prime form of his career, and it’s been fascinating to watch.”

You regularly hear sportsmen or women asked about chasing the perfect performance.

But it is such a cliched question because what do you class as perfection?

Fisher continued: “Before a game, you could say, ‘Right, we want 1,000 runs in the first innings and then bowl the opposition out twice for 50’.

“That would be perfection, but it’s not realistic.

“It would be stupid to expect that to happen in professional cricket.

“But what we watched in that first Test, I would describe it as perfection with realism.

“It would be realistic to say, ‘Let’s win the toss, score massive runs, let the pitch deteriorate, bowl them out for 200-300, bat again for some quick runs and then bowl them out for 200 on the last day’.

“No one would tell you that’s never going to happen.

“It’s realistic, but the perfect outcome at the same time.”

The 23-year-old continued: “You see it in many sports where teams are just so successful at a given time, and you can tell Rooty and Chris Silverwood have built something special in terms of the culture”.