For too long he appeared to be influenced by Twenty20 cricket. He was trying to force his way back into England’s T20 side, but that frenetic type of batting is not for him.

I felt that when playing Test cricket his subconscious was telling him to try to score off almost every ball. He was opening the face of the bat to good length balls trying to run it to third man, working straight balls to leg and even when he defended a really good ball he would set off for a run. In other words, he was trying to avoid a dot ball. Against top-class Test bowlers that is not possible.

I believe Chris Silverwood, the new head coach, is a good influence. Trevor Bayliss was always asking our players to be positive and some thought that meant trying to smack the ball around when Bayliss probably just meant that you should be positive in defence and attack.

Silverwood realises there are five days in a Test match and 450 overs to play with, so there is plenty of time to bat without pressure of scoring rates. It is the way I was taught. We were told if you make runs for yourself, you are helping the team. Joe’s biggest test will be against pace in Australia but, right now, by not batting in a gung-ho style, he has settled down and is giving himself a chance to bat big.

The first time I saw Joe he was about 14. I lived in Jersey and Steve Oldham, the Yorkshire academy coach, brought the under-16s over for a tournament. He brought this little kid called Joe, who was smaller than the rest because he was only 14. He did not play the first game because his luggage had been lost. But Oldham sat with this young lad and said to him, ‘why do you think the captain has moved that fielder? What would you do? What field would you set for this bowler?’ Even then Steve thought he had that extra something and was teaching Joe to think.

The following day his kit turned up and we went to watch him bat. Afterwards my wife Rachael said to me, “that lad will play for England one day” and he has been one of her favourites ever since.

Everyone at Yorkshire could tell he was going to be special. He played correctly with good footwork and transference of weight from front to back foot. He played straight and had that natural grounding without which you will not survive at Test level.

Joe had a little hiccup when he shot up in size. Kevin Sharp, our batting coach, worked out his problem. Because he had grown taller he was bent over at the crease and his eyes were not horizontal. He had a short-handled bat so he was bending over too much in his stance, meaning one eye was above the other. Yorkshire coaches advised him to stand more upright with a longer handled bat and he was fine. Runs flowed again.

After that it was just a question of when, not if, he would make it. His batting has not changed. Great players have good footwork, they move their feet like a dancer. If you can’t dance, you can’t bat.

He is a very good sweeper and reverse sweeper. It is a shot that shows how Twenty20 cricket influences Test cricket now. If we had tried a sweep, a cross-bat shot, the coach would have said, “that won’t do lad”. Our coaches knew the first-class umpires were all ex-players and they would give you out if you were hit on the pad missing a cross-bat swipe.

Now it is second nature because it is a safe shot as long as they get their front leg outside the line of off stump. Joe plays it especially well because he gets very low and plays it with a low, horizontal bat. His head is right down low, on the line of the ball. During his 186 he mistimed only one sweep that trickled for a single. Everything else he hit in the middle. It was a superb exhibition of a modern shot.

Congratulations Joe. It has been a pleasure to watch you develop into a world-class batsman.

The Telegraph, London