As the most anticipated 5 match test series between India and England started in Hyderabad on 25th January 2024, The England team with its Bazball approach seemingly will the talking point of the series but they too have the batter in the form of Joe Root in their squad who acts as a perfect test match batter and has immaculate record in the subcontinent due to his technique of proper test batting technique.
Joe Root since his debut has a special liking for Team India whether at home or India and loves to grind runs against them. With all other batters around him taking the hit the ball Bazball approach till date, Joe Root the most accomplished batter for England in test still believes in the age old textbook technique of test batting. His sweep and reverse sweep shots to perfection in the subcontinental wickets often has yielded him great results.
Joe Root performance in India and how his form had the effect on the series
Joe Root with his swift stand and able to read and play the spinners well due to agile techniques hitting sweeps and reverse sweeps at will has been hugely successful in subcontinental conditions . Joe Root versus India has an amazing numbers with the bat with had scored 2555 runs in 26 matches at an astonishing average of 62.31 inclusive of 9 hundreds and 10 fifties from 2012-2024. To add to the tally in Indian conditions alone Joe Root’s stats are 981 runs in just 11 test matches at an average of 49.50 including 2 hundreds and five fifties.
Joe Root was instrumental when England thrashed India in the first test match last time they toured India where he had scored an Double century in his first innings of that series . This series will had been no be no different as India will always find a thorn in their conquest in the form of Joe Root.
However much to the surprise of cricket fans all over the world, Joe Root entered the fourth Test against India on the back of 29, 2, 5, 16, 18, 7 in his last Test innings and that 18 in the first innings at Rajkot might have hurt him deeply. England were at a dominant 224 for two, well in sight of India’s first innings total of 445. But Root decided to reverse lap Jasprit Bumrah for Yashaswi Jaiswal to pull off a smart catch at slip.
His dismissal sparked an England collapse as the tourists were bundled out for 319, and India converted that lead into a record victory and a 2-1 series lead. It sparked the discussion about the careless side of Bazball, and Root’s 50-plus average during the McCullum reign was not good enough to slow down the wagging fingers at him.
The 33-year-old needed an innings of substance for that, and he had to return to his original batting ways which incidentally happened in the first innings on Day 1 at Ranchi.
England’s most experienced batter Joe Root shelves innovations to score 31st Test hundred to keep visitors in the game
Keeping the sweep shot to a minimum, playing the situation like they should have in many previous situations, Root rotated the strike by nudging the ball through the gaps and finding the occasional boundary.
Throughout the entire afternoon session Foakes worked on being the perfect foil for Root, playing with utmost caution till he fell three runs short of a deserving fifty, trying to chip Mohammed Siraj but finding Jadeja at short midwicket. Eight overs later, Siraj struck again, this time bowling through Tom Hartley’s defence while almost squaring him up.
Six down, England were quickly running out of able partners for Root but Ollie Robinson showed promise by clubbing a beamer from Jadeja over midwicket to bring up England’s 250. Luck favored England too when Robinson survived a leg-before appeal from Jadeja batting on 8. Kumar Dharmasena had turned down a vociferous appeal from Jadeja and the slip cordon but replays later suggested that the delivery was hitting middle stump.
India were to rue what could have been as they had exhausted all their reviews by then, Jadeja being part of two involving Foakes and Root.
Through all this Root was almost zen-like in his unwavering focus, playing every ball on its merit and rarely giving into the temptation of reverse sweeping. That only three out of the nine boundaries he had hit came against spinners was an outright indicator of Root’s discipline on a pitch that was deceptively two-paced. Otherwise he almost always played close to his body, exploiting the leg glance in particular that fetched him 24 runs, 20 of them coming in singles and twos.
The boundary that got Root his 31st Test hundred couldn’t have been more old-school, as he leaned into a cover drive off Deep, prompting massive jubilation at the England dressing room and the team would be now relieved that the batter with more than 11000 runs to the name finally came good with the bat for them in the series.
This century slowest in terms of balls faced by Joe Root showed resilience of the batter not to play erratic shots in his whole display of typical test match innings. This gesture and composure from Joe Root garnered praises from Former English skipper Nasser Hussain.
Former English skipper Nasser Hussain garners heavy praise on Joe Root post his magnificent 31st Ton
Former England skipper Nasser Hussain hailed Joe Root for his magnificent hundred on Day 1 of the 4th Test against India in Ranchi on Friday, February 23. Hussain observed that he saw a completely different Root from the one he had a decade ago.
Root rescued England out of trouble as he hit a record 31st Test hundred in Ranchi. Walking in at 47-2 and with the tourists soon finding themselves at 112-5, he bed in to take England to 302-7 in 90 overs.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Hussain earmarked the 33-year-old to go down as one of England’s greatest. He observed how he batted in Ranchi with a sense of purpose, saying:
“You don’t keep a great player down for long and Joe Root is definitely a great player – arguably one of England’s greatest, if not their greatest ever batter. The stats will tell you that by the end of his career.
“The Root we’ve seen over the last decade or so has had that sort of boyish smile on his face. I saw a slightly different Joe today and a steely toughness in his eye.”
The 55-year-old elaborated that Root has always been his biggest critic, prompting him to come up with the goods, adding:
“Whether that was because he was stung by the criticism he’s received for some for the shots he’s played, or whether it’s actually Root himself wanting to contribute more after a bit of a lean patch.
“And he is his biggest critic. He is constantly trying to self-improve and look at his own game. He was absolutely outstanding today, on a difficult pitch he got his tempo perfect.”
The right-hander reached the three-figure mark in the 84th over of the day with a drive through the covers off Akash Deep’s bowling. His celebrations were subdued.
Joe Root had every shot in the book exclaims Nasser Hussain.
Hussain also pointed out how Root put away his sweeps and reverse sweeps for the most part of his innings at Ranchi, saying:
“In a month’s time or next summer, he’ll go back to playing all the funky shots because that’s what he has. He has every single shot in the book and sometimes it is difficult when you’re that talented to keep certain shots away. Joe is one of the best sweepers of a cricket ball I’ve ever seen. He played one reverse sweep and two sweeps today, because of the pitch.”
Joe Root shared important partnerships with Ben Foakes and Ollie Robinson en route to England’s total of 302-7 on Day 1.
England needed that innings too. All the razzle dazzle about Bazball couldn’t have hidden the fact that England were conceding Tests to India by not consolidating on quick starts. Bairstow looked good to do that till that sweep did him in. But Root again proved himself to be a class above the rest by adapting and digging in when England needed him to but couldn’t have come to admit it. All in all, cricket had not failed to be interesting on the first day of a must-win Test for England.