The English summer of 2011 was slowly fading away, and it was being replaced by the winter season. Amid the chilly weather at Scarborough, Joe Root, all of 20, had decided to play according to the situation of the game and respect the prevailing conditions while up against a disciplined Sussex pace attack.
Root played and missed a few times while facing James Anyon, but he always seemed to find the delete button fitted in his brain to forget the previous delivery. As the innings progressed, Root expanded his game and aggregated his maiden first-class century.
A year later, on his Test debut against India, we witnessed more evidence of Root’s calm countenance as he aggregated a gutsy hand of 73 on a track that was staying relatively low. Time flies. A decade later, Root now has 47 international tons to his name. During that time, he has also branched out his game by adding new shots to his weaponry. But the soul of his batting has remained the same: Accumulating runs at a brisk pace, without taking too many risks.
For a while, the Root-template seemed to be in a bit of a mess. There were scoops and reverse scoops. To his credit, Root did succeed in surprising his opponents with innovative shots. His bravado, however, was juxtaposed by a few ungainly dismissals. At the dawn of another year, Root found himself in the cauldron of facing up to a very good Indian attack in their home conditions.
In the second innings of the Vizag Test, Root’s batting seemed to resemble that of a cat on a hot tin roof. Jasprit Bumrah, bowling at the peak of his prowess, dislodged him thrice in the series. One of those dismissals was via a reverse lap in Rajkot. And that wicket also came at a crucial moment of the game. After picking up that prized scalp, India soon gained ascendancy and eventually crushed England by a humongous margin. After that Test, Root was rightly criticised for trying to play a game that was alien to him.
Root is the pivot of the side, around whom the rest of the English batters can look to play aggressively. That is how it should be. And that is how it turned out in the fourth Test in Ranchi. On a track that was staying quite low, Root hardly played a sweep or any of those fancy shots. He was willing to offer a straight blade.
In fact, he completed his hundred by cracking a sumptuous drive wide of mid-on. Just like the Root of old, he also picked the length early versus the spinners and was always ready to look for scoring opportunities off the back foot. The delightful late cut off R Jadeja in the 58th serves as an example.
Root at the peak of his prowess reminds you of two words — neat and tidy. In the first three Tests of the series, his batting was anything but a synonym for those words. On a day, when England needed their fulcrum to shine brightly, he did it by wearing his old mask that goes by the name of Root-Template.
For latest sports news: click here