Bowling coach Gibson helped batting hero to deliver

JOE ROOT revealed how a comment from England’s bowling coach Ottis Gibson spurred him on to a careerbest 254 and left his side in control of the second Test against Pakistan.

Root batted for more than 10 hours, grinding down the Pakistanis to the extent that — when their own innings began late on Saturday afternoon — they promptly collapsed to 57 for four.

But it was at tea on the first day, when Root had only 87, that Gibson passed on his advice — and England’s new No 3 bore it in mind all the way to the highest Test score at Old Trafford for 52 years.

Root explained: ‘Ottis Gibson came to me at tea on Friday and said, “If you ever get bored of batting, take a deep breath and start again”. I didn’t stop thinking about that throughout my innings.

‘We work very hard as a team to try to get scores of 500-plus. To actually go and do it is a very good feeling.

‘It’s what you strive for, scores like this and getting the team in positions like this. It’s what you play the game for: all those lower scores give you the drive to go on and get a big one.’

Root began the Test summer with scores of nought and 80 against Sri Lanka at Headingley, since when he fell for three, four, 48 and nine. At Lord’s against Pakistan, he got out to a pair of reckless strokes that came to embody the team’s performance.

Now, though, he set about treating a Manchester crowd of over 17,000 — and the Pakistan attack — to a masterclass in unobtrusive accumulation.

Root’s use of the crease was especially impressive. He went either well forward or right back to deal with Pakistan’s leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who looked a shadow of the bowler who had dismantled England at Lord’s, and moved across his stumps to deal with their trio of left-arm quicks, who were trying to lure him into indiscretion outside off stump.

‘They may have bowled a bit wider at me than other teams, but I played it better,’ he said. ‘I didn’t go across the ball as much.

‘More than anything, it’s just really pleasing to have a good game plan.’ Referring to Lord’s, Root said: ‘They were poor dismissals, and I’ve worked very hard this week to try to nullify them from my game.

‘When you’re given an opportunity, you have to make sure you make it count. That’s why I was so revved up when I got to 200.’

The upshot of it all was a standing ovation from a Lancashire crowd for a Yorkshire batsman. It was that kind of a memorable day.

Root added: ‘I thought the way we continued to build partnerships was exactly what we needed to do.

‘It could have been very easy for us to lose a couple of early wickets and let them back into the game.

‘But Chris (Woakes) played outstandingly well this morning, and then the guys who came in afterwards continued that.

‘Then the boys with the ball tonight were outstanding as well . . . so we’ve got a really good opportunity when we come back tomorrow.’