Joe Root single-handedly steered England to safety with a gritty century on the opening day of the fourth Test. The English batter – almost single-handedly – steered England to safety with a gritty century on the opening day of the fourth Test.
At the close of play, the 33-year-old Root remained unbeaten on 106 runs, exhibiting a classical Test innings crafted over 226 deliveries. Accompanying him at the crease was Ollie Robinson with 26 runs, as England managed to recover from the early setbacks caused by Akash Deep‘s impressive bowling.
England found themselves reeling at 112-5 as the 27-year-old debutant Akash Deep wreaked havoc on the visitors in Ranchi; he picked the first three wickets in a brilliant opening spell, with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja following up. However, Root, receiving valuable support first from Ben Foakes and Ollie Robinson, orchestrated a recovery, guiding England to 302/7.
Reacting to Root’s brilliant knock under pressure, former England captain Alastair Cook stated that the batting great went back to his basics to return to run-scoring. In his praise for Root, Cook also drew a parallel with Indian captain Rohit Sharma.
“When you see someone go through a little trouble, it’s always great to see them out the other end. When great players don’t score runs it’s only a matter of time until they do,” Cook told TNT Sport.
“What Joe Root did today was go back to basics. This is a clip of someone with the shots you’d expect Joe Root to play (Cook was speaking while a video of Root’s innings was being played). All the talk about the reverse scoop being unusual, this is a very typical Joe innings.
“Slightly slower than normal but the tempo and his rhythm of batting is what makes him stand out. When he’s in fine flow he’s got such a nice easy way about him, Rohit [Sharma]- like. Pure and utter class, great player of spin and he has all the options covered.”
Root had been going through a rough patch in the series so far; adhering to the Bazball philosophy, the England batter was at the receiving end of some bizarre dismissals. He had registered scores of 29, 2, 5, 16, 18, and 7 across three Tests against India.
He received particular criticism for his dismissal in the first innings of the third Test in Rajkot, where Root attempted a reverse-ramp shot against Jasprit Bumrah, resulting in his dismissal. His departure led to an immediate batting order collapse for England; the side eventually lost by 434 runs, its biggest defeat by runs under Ben Stokes’ regime so far.