Root could be the answer to spin problems
Hcaptain’s five-wicket haul shows how he can balance the England attack and pose a reliable threat to left-handers
Compiling a Test side is an exercise in ensuring balance. As the sight of Jofra Archer at No8, a position that matched his batting average, attested, Test teams need bowlers to add value with the bat.
But greater balance can also come from another source: batsmen contributing with the ball. Such cricketers cannot only provide respite for the front-line quicks, but also attack when the circumstances are right.
It was a lesson that has seldom been so brilliantly distilled as by Joe Root on the harum-scarum second day at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Root’s very first ball after being whisked into the attack produced off-spinning nirvana. The delivery drifted into the footmarks outside Rishabh Pant’s off stump, was pitched on a perfect length and found enough turn to graze the outside edge. It set the template for a wonderful spell of bowling.
Before Root had conceded a run, he had bowled Washington Sundar, another left-hander, with a sumptuous delivery that pitched on middle and hit the top of off, and snared Axar Patel driving to short cover with a ball that held in the surface.
By the time Root was done, so was India’s first innings: Root had claimed a ludicrous five for eight from 6.2 overs, his first five-wicket haul in first-class, let alone Test, cricket. On pitches such as this, Test cricket in India can occasionally throw up extraordinary analyses – think of Australia’s Michael Clarke taking six for nine with his left-arm spin in 2004 – but this was a performance brimming with possibilities for England’s future, too.
Root is not about to become a bona fide all-rounder, but his offspin has now claimed 37 Test wickets at a very respectable 41.8 apiece. Given the likelihood that Ben Stokes will bowl less in the future, Root could go some way to helping England make up the shortfall.
This winter, he has taken eight wickets at under 10 apiece, and conceded at just 2.2 runs an over, showing good control for a part-timer. While Root will never have the control to be relied on to deliver 15 overs a day, he generates appreciable turn. Throughout his Test career, he manages 3.6 degrees of turn on average – only fractionally below Dom Bess’s 3.7 – which is sufficient to beat left-handers on the outside edge.
For England’s development, most important of all is that Root’s strengths perfectly complement those of Jack Leach. For all the fine impression that Leach has made in his embryonic Test career, he has proved noticeably less effective against left-handers.
It was instructive that Root brought himself on against Pant, and that his first three wickets were all left-handers. The notion of match-ups – bowling the optimal bowler to a particular batsman, based on the particular strengths of the bowling attack and the weaknesses of the batsman – is increasingly permeating Test cricket.
Spinners tend to be more potent when turning the ball away from batsmen, but Leach and Root are both extreme examples. Leach’s fine average of 24.6 to right-handers swells to 51.4 against left-handers. Root now averages 61.4 against right-handers, but just 25.2 against left-handers. This all suggests Root should be more prompt in bowling himself when England are being held up by left-handed resistance.
All of this makes the case for Leach to be England’s long-term first-choice Test spinner even greater. When Bess was entrusted with the role, Root’s bowling was almost redundant. But alongside Leach, Root’s off-spin offers a contrasting threat and helps to conceal the facet of his craft where Leach is less advanced.
So, Root’s spell may yet prove something altogether more significant than a quiz question. It could also help to provide England’s attack with greater balance for the challenges ahead.
Given that Stokes will bowl less in the future, the captain can go some way to make up the shortfall