Joe Root is established as one of England’s greatest ever Test batters, with more than 11,000 runs at an average a shade under 50. However, Joe Root has struggled in India this winter, with a high score of 29 and an average of 12.83 from three Tests thus far.
While Root’s average under the leadership of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum is slightly better than his career figure, much of the criticism has rested on whether he suits their style of play. This debate was fueled by his first-innings dismissal at Rajkot, caught at slip attempting to reverse-ramp Jasprit Bumrah. Root’s recent record in India is also poor. Since making a memorable double century at Chennai to kick of England’s 2021 tour, he has a high score of 40 in 13 innings.
Joe Root’s injury in the second test led to England loosing the second match at Vizag
England during India’s batting in the second innings on Day 3 at Vizag suffered a massive injury scare when Joe Root was forced to leave the field on day 3 of the Test match at Vizag after hurting his finger while fielding at slip and looking in pain. Joe Root was forced to spend most of the time off the field in the morning session and did not come out onto the field during India’s remaining 2nd innings.
Prolific batter Joe Root was compelled to leave the field due to a blow on his right little finger during Day 3 of the second Test against India in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. Joe Root suffered the injury in the 18th over of India’s second innings while attempting to catch an edge from Shubman Gill in the slips.
However as England faces a mammoth target of 399 to chase in the fourth innings it would be evident that the contribution from England’s most experienced and seasoned batter Joe Root would be vital for England in the second innings.
Attacking gameplan not quite successful for Joe Root
With the target of 399 to achieve for victory and two days remaining, it was expected that England’s talismanic batter Joe Root who has around 11000 runs to his name in the test arena, would be a thorn in India’s quest to victory and a vital cog in England’s pursuit of the target. However when Joe Root got injured on Day 3 and didn’t take the field for the entire day everyone do speculated about the batter’s availability to bat in the second innings due to injury.
Post dismissal of Ollie Pope , Joe Root took the field to bat but then his intentions with the bat stunned all the experts and fans around the globe as he followed an uncanny method of batting through his short lived innings at the crease and making everyone wondered what actually changed for a pure test batter to go T20 way . More than the way Joe Root batted his way of getting out did no good for England as they found themselves in more trouble in pursuit of 399.
England’s premier batter Joe Root played a horrendous shot at a critical stage of the game to be dismissed for 16 on Day 4 of the second Test against India. The 33-year-old spent most of Day 3 off the field due to a finger injury sustained in the eighth over of the morning. Although cleared to bat in England’s second innings, Root was in a hurry from the word go.
After a reverse swept boundary off his first delivery, the stylish batter got lucky with a similar attempt two balls later. Yet, Root continued batting aggressively despite the game situation and eventually perished in an attempt for a maximum on the leg side. His ungainly slog off Ravichandran Ashwin found Axar Patel at backward point, leading to England slipping to 154/4 in their run-chase of 399.
The champion batter has struggled throughout the series to balance attack and defense, scoring only 52 runs in four innings at an average of 13. Despite crossing the 1000-run mark in Tests in India during his brief stay, Root’s dismissal sunk England further in their already improbable chase.
Fans on Twitter condemned England’s Bazball approach for having a detrimental effect on Root’s batting lately and blasted the batter for playing a horrendous shot at that stage of the contest.
However a lot of expected out of Root coming into the third test with series level 1-1 and with England’s score at 207 for 2 at end of Day 2 in response to India’s 445 in a rapid time, Day 3 supposedly was predicted to be the England’s day with India bowling with a 4 man attack. However England collapsed to 319 all out and the trigger point of that collapse was again Joe Root’s uncanny way of getting dismissed. Joe Root reversed scoop a shot which was taken by Yashasvi Jaiswal at second slip to trigger England’s downfall.
Also in second innings Joe root failed with the bat once again in pursuit of 557 and failed to show any resistance . Joe Root through his unorthodox method to fit into Bazball scheme of things has been a walking wicket in the 3 tests so far in the series. However a total failure with the bat Joe Root somehow has been turned out to be the bowler for England .
With Stokes unable to bowl, Root has effectively been England’s all-rounder in the top six this series, sending down 107 overs in the series thus far, exceeding by a distance his previous biggest workload, of 63 overs in England’s 3-0 victory over Pakistan last winter. Root’s only score above 20 this series came in England’s first innings, which is also the only time he has batted before bowling in that time.
This failure of Joe Root has not surprised former England batter now commentator Mark Butcher who said openly regarding the failure of England’s most prolific batter over the time.
Mark Butcher makes a bold statement on the management regarding the workload of Joe Root
Former England cricketer Mark Butcher believes the visitors shouldn’t be surprised about Joe Root’s lack of runs in the ongoing Test series against India. He feels Root’s bowling workload has affected his batting, with the Yorkshire cricketer bowling a significant amount of overs in the first three Tests.
The former England captain has aggregated only 77 runs in six innings in the series thus far but has sent down over 100 overs. With Root finding some success on the previous India tour and the inexperience in England’s bowling unit, Stokes has used him as a frontline bowler.
Butcher said that using Root as a genuine all-rounder puts undue pressure on him to produce the expected results with the bat. As quoted by Wisden, he said:
“If you’re asking your best batter to be a genuine all-rounder and bowl as many overs as your frontline spinners, then don’t be overly surprised if you’re not getting the output from him with the bat that you would like. I’ve thought that that thinking, going back in time to when people were talking about Joe Root being the lone spinner for England in more seam-friendly conditions and said that that was nonsense.”
“I still think that having him having to do so much work as a frontline spin bowler is not likely to yield the sort of results that you’d expect from him with the bat.”
As a part-time off-spinner, Root has claimed a five-wicket haul in India and has bowled decently in the series. The 33-year-old claimed five wickets in England’s 28-run victory over India in the first Test in Hyderabad, including four in the first innings.
Butcher also raised the issue of England’s inexperienced slow bowling attack as a key difference between them and India. With Leach injured, Rehan Ahmed, who has played three Tests, is their most experienced frontline spinner. India, on the other hand, have R Ashwin, who crossed 500 wickets at Rajkot, and Ravindra Jadeja, one of just 12 all-rounders in history to complete the double of 3,000 runs and 250 wickets, to call upon.
After a record defeat at Rajkot, England are 2-1 down with two games to play. The series resumes at Ranchi on Friday, February 23 and England would really need to chalk out the plan for comeback especially with Joe Root with such precarious form with bat.