Root takes his route, drives England to safety

Ranchi: Joe Root relegated ‘Bazball’ to where it belongs and brought out his brand of batting and showed India that he is infinitely better than the numbers have suggested this series. 

Coming to Ranchi, Root had scored 77 runs in six innings. It’s very unlike him, and it was even more peculiar because he was getting out in very un-Root-like ways. Naturally, it was assumed that ‘Bazball’ had tainted one of the cleanest batters in the history of cricket. 

The superficial assessment grew in volume, though the data suggested otherwise, but Root hasn’t helped that narrative by playing a knock so far removed from the last two years of English cricket that you’d reckon you had time travelled to the past. 

On a pitch which was vicious to start and mellow once the moisture dried out, Root came up with a delectable 106 not out from 226 balls to guide England to a comforting 302 for 7 in 90 overs on the opening day of the fourth Test in Ranchi. 

While there were a few cameos worth mentioning, especially the 47 from Ben Foakes, England relied almost entirely on the genius of Root to slip out of India’s grip this time around. 

Ben Stokes did the right thing in opting to bat first after winning the toss. After all, who would want to bat in the fourth innings on a deteriorated pitch? India will have to now, and the more England’s innings progresses, the higher the likelihood of that scenario playing out. 

India, however, won’t want to look that far ahead and feel good about the way the opening day played out. It wasn’t ideal in terms of runs conceded and such, but it wasn’t terrible either. 

Especially so because they gave Akash Deep the cap and the Bengal pacer came up with India’s first three wickets. Suddenly, Jasprit Bumrah wasn’t so missed because Deep and Mohammed Siraj had England cornered. 

Once the spinners came on, England were in more trouble because R Ashwin sent an aimlessly slapping Jonny Bairstow back and Ravindra Jadeja got the ball to stay a bit low to end Stokes’ brief stay. 

England were down five wickets for 112 runs. Their aggression had neither given them runs nor helped their run rate.

Enter Root. Arguably the greatest English batter, the right-hander had stuck to batting in a regulated manner at the ‘nets’ for the two days which preceded the opening day, and it was a pleasant sight. 

There was, however, some apprehension regarding his usage of this calm, composed and methodical batting routine in the game. Well, he showed that he could just as well step away from the revolution and still dominate the game. 

Using the dead bat to grand effect, Root played the field without ever taking a risk. He kept his sweeps and reverse sweeps down to a minimum, he didn’t attempt those reverse scoops, no charging down the track, nothing. 

Root played conventional cricket to such a high degree that it became unique in and of itself. 

India, meanwhile, were running out of ideas. They stuck to a largely leg-side field as there was an awkwardness to the bounce even as the day progressed, but Root didn’t crack. Even Foakes dismissal, which ended a  113-run sixth-wicket stand, didn’t fluster Root. 

The 33-year-old shed the sentiment that he was a better off-spinner than a batter in this series, by showing what he could do. 

For that though, he had to escape the orbit of planet ‘Bazball’ and return to his roots.