ROOT HLESS
Skipper Joe’s new disciplined approach at the crease pays off in record-breaking knock
JOE ROOT has revealed how less has helped him get more by kicking off 2021 with a recordbreaking ton in Sri Lanka.
Root put in the ultimate captain’s performance with an 18th hundred, the highest Test score by an Englishman in Sri Lanka, beating Kevin Pietersen’s 151 in 2012.
And coming as it has in the first innings of what is set to be an epic year, Root laid down the sort of marker he had been dreaming of following a 12-month period when he failed to register an international hundred.
The 30-year-old also became the first England cricketer to score a second century in Sri Lanka and he admitted his decision to restrict his usually free-wheeling style had paid dividends.
“It felt good to get there,” said Root. “I really wanted to make it count. The previous couple of hundreds I have got have come at the end of series so to get one at the start of a long winter is quite exciting and it felt like this was an innings a long time coming.
“I’m being a little more selective in only playing so many shots and not trying to play every shot in the book.
“When I was a little bit younger and on previous trips I might have tried to play too many shots to the same ball. I’m trying to be more ruthless, more stubborn and trust my defence a little bit more at times and it has paid off.” He put together a record fourth-wicket stand of 173 with debutant Dan Lawrence, who made the most promising of starts to his Test career to suggest there is real depth in areas of English cricket.
But Root knows better than anyone the job of facing down Sri Lanka, India and Australia away and India and New Zealand at home this year will need senior men like himself playing a leading role. It is not his fault Sri Lanka have been woeful and are failing to live up to a proud history at Galle. But Root made sure he took full toll of the gifts on offer to tilt his conversion rate of 50s to 100s slightly the right way.
His strength against spin was to the fore as he swept the living daylights out of the bowlers as well as poor Kusal Mendis stationed at short leg who left the field battered and bruised.
“It is a horrible scenario to be in,” added Root. “The sweep is a very strong scoring shot for me and I hope he’s all right.
“I’m extremely pleased because I did a lot of talking before the game about this year and I thought it was really important for me to go and do it myself.
“I’ve been desperate to convert those fifties into big scores, but over the last couple of years I’ve over-thought it massively.”