The approach won’t change. That’s what Ben Stokes asserted after England’s 106-run loss in the second Test at the ACA-VDCA Stadium that helped India level the series 1-1.
All the bold, aggressive and entertaining brand of cricket aside, the England management needs to have a look into how certain players in the group are coping with Bazball. Joe Root is one of them.
Ever since Brendon McCullum’s arrival as England’s Test head coach back in
June 2022, Root’s overall numbers in the longest format have been impressive as he averages over 50 with a strike rate of 75-plus. Having said that, in his last 11 innings which includes the 2023 Ashes, Root aggregates only 300 runs with only a couple of 50-plus scores and an average falling below
30 (27.27).
Such numbers don’t at all suit a player of Root’s calibre, with his last three-figure score coming last June in the Birmingham Test against Australia.
So then, is Root subconsciously compromising his actual game and style of play for the sake of Bazball? On Monday, which turned out to be the deciding day of the second Test, the shot off Ravichandran Ashwin’s bowling which cost Root his wicket looked atrocious to say the least.
Stokes and McCullum may brush it aside as just a one-off instance where the attempt to keep the opposition under the cosh didn’t come off. But for a player with 11,468 Test runs at an average close to 50, perishing in that fashion looked ugly and doesn’t bode well.
“It’s a fine line when it comes to being aggressive and taking too big risks. I suppose at the end of the day, results will say whether you are getting it right or wrong,” Shaun Seigert, who has been Root’s mentor and is also the coach of the former England captain’s academy (R66t academy), told The Telegraph from Adelaide on Tuesday.
“As a batter you need to bat in your lane. If you go outside then you generally make more mistakes. There’s a difference between being positive and reckless,” Seigert added.
Should Root have been more careful about his shot selection against Ashwin? “Yesterday (Monday) he hit across the spin and it caught the edge and ballooned to backward point. The room for error is so small.
“Playing across the line is riskier as opposed to hitting through the line. If you are not quite there (to the line of the ball), which Joe wasn’t, it takes the edge or you miss it,” Seigert explained.
The very first ball Root faced on Monday, he reverse-swept Ashwin for a four. But does Root have to be cheeky right from the time he takes guard? He’s a far better player than scoring runs solely through reverse-sweep or other flashy strokes.
Is Bazball putting Root into some kind of pressure? “To win a game, you have to be positive in your approach, but you still have to make good decisions.
“... Not sure if it’s adding pressure on Joe as he’s the only one who knows about it. But you have to have the game to back up your approach. You can have an attacking batsman around someone who bats a little more conservatively,” Seigert pointed out.
With an injury to his right little finger, Root could have taken a little more time before trying to open up. His soft dismissal was a key moment in the second Test as it hampered England’s momentum.
In Indian conditions, it won’t be easy to bash the likes of Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah and chase down totals close to 400 or more in just “60-70 overs”. The task thus is cut out for Root in the coming Tests and he should be allowed to remain in his comfort zone.
Glorious failure?
Former England captain Geoffrey Boycott lashed out at Stokes and McCullum following England’s defeat in the second Test. “Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes are besotted with attack, attack, attack.
It’s as if they say, ‘If we can’t win, we will go down in glorious failure instead.’ But there is no glory in failure or defeat,” Boycott wrote in The Daily Telegraph.
