ROOT THE HISTORY MAKER
Captain’s nine-hour lesson in how to handle spin confirms him as ‘England’s best ever’
THERE was a moment as he left the field following his latest epic innings in which Joe Root was in the company of Virat Kohli — and there was little doubting that is where he belongs once more.
So imperious has been the form of the England captain this past month that he has returned to the ranks of the very best batsmen in the world, a place his Indian counterpart Kohli, the man whose handshake acknowledged the quality of a nine-hour masterclass, has dwelt for the past decade.
In skipping down the pitch to caress a delivery from Ravichandran Ashwin over long-on for six shortly before tea, Root moved to 201 not out, a total that guaranteed he would finish his 100th Test with an average of more than 50 — the mark recognised as separating the great batsmen from the good. On the evidence presented so far, this could be t he year of Root’s career, and it is already making hi s personal travails of 2020 feel like a distant memory.
The Test calendar looked unforgiving with its relentless schedule and the relentless quality of the opposition — nine matches against current World Test Championship leaders India sandwiching two against the No 1-ranked New Zealand providing an oversized hors d’oeuvres to next winter’s Ashes.
But Root’s response has been dauntless. Five innings ago, he was eighth on England’s list of Test run scorers, yet shortly before Shahbaz Na de em dismissed him for 218 with a delivery that slid past the inside edge, he had snuck past Alec Stewart in third. If he retains such single-mindedness to his own game, he will have become only the second Englishman behind Sir Alastair Cook to reach 9,000 well before he turns 31 on the penultimate day of 2021.
‘He makes me feel rubbish,’ said Ben Stokes. ‘That’s pretty much where he’s at at the moment, he makes everyone else around him look not very good. He’s in phenomenal form, making things look very, very easy and the way he plays spin — dominates spin — is incredible.
‘I don’t think we’ve had an England batsman ever play spin the way he does. It’s just a delight to watch him.’
Seldom did Root look in trouble, such is his mastery of subcontinental conditions. On Indian soil, his record is comparable with that of Kohli, an average of 66 compared with 68, and he adapted his game seamlessly from Sri Lanka, where he ended a 14-month drought without a hundred with scores of 186 and 228.
In Galle, he swept the spinners to distraction. Here, recognising the extra bounce a generally true Chennai pitch offered, it was with an expanded range of stroke that his blade did its damage during stands of 124 and 86 with returning middle-order duo Stokes and Ollie Pope. The effortlessness of his straight hit off Ashwin was a feature of his batting, as was improvisation — none better than the reverse dink to the thirdman rope that saw him move past Inzamam-ul-Haq for the highest score of a player celebrating a century of caps — and in working the angles by using the depth of the crease. The current schedule offers little respite, but Root hopped off the treadmill and on to a Peloton exercise bike during last year’s lockdown. He attributes his marathon knocks to a sustained fitness regime. Healthy body, healthy mind.
He is thinking more at the crease, having unearthed a tendency to get stuck in a one-day tempo when transferring to Test cricket during extensive pre-Christmas analysis of his dip in form.
Some of that was a legacy of former coach Trevor Bayliss’s belief that the team needed to follow an attacking template. As if to emphasise that a more pragmatic approach suits Root better, he went up and down the gears. Having dominated the scoring in partnership with the indomitable Dom Sibley on day one, he played second fiddle to Stokes, who contributed 63 of the morning session’s 92 runs, and then struck 53 off 76 balls himself in the afternoon.
The final hour and a quarter before lunch proved pivotal. Just four runs had come in the previous five overs when Stokes began a flurry of boundaries with a slog sweep off Ashwin. The bravado belied the testing conditions at the start of the second morning as a refreshed Jasprit Bumrah charged in and Ashwin, one bowler who has the wood over him in Test cricket, wheeled away with a newish ball.
Stokes did well to jab down on a Bumrah yorker on nought and showed modest ambition during the initial stages of a first first- class innings for six months — a serene straight stroke over the ropes off Ashwin aside.
It was once the change bowlers were introduced that he made hay. Nadeem had a spiteful piece of rough to aim at outside the left-hander’s off-stump, but recognising the perils it might cause Stokes launched the counter- attack, back-to-back reverse sweeps taking him to a 73-ball 50.
India were flustered. Within the space of five deliveries they burnt two reviews. And Stokes had not added to his score when Ashwin put down a stinging return chance. Down the other end, a powerful sweep off Nadeem burst through the hands of Cheteshwar Pujara.
Then, immediately after congratulating Root on his 150, brought up via a checked drive into the covers for a single, Stokes was back down on one knee, hauling Nadeem into the stands.
England’s captain and his deputy were chuckling mid-pitch again in the next over when Stokes sold his lifelong friend down the Ganges with a misjudged single. Root was spared another run out by Washington Sundar’s awful throw.
India lost control whenever Nadeem, drafted in for a second Test appearance due to injury to Ravindra Jadeja, or fellow spinner Washington were used. It was a sign of Kohli’s displeasure that Rohit Sharma’s part-time offies were given an airing before tea.
By that point, Stokes had holed out off Nadeem and Pope, who had a right to a plea of rustiness following shoulder surgery, was half-a-dozen overs shy of being dismissed too. Root was out next over, but his comeback was assured.