Joe Root picked up four wickets in India’s first innings in Hyderabad, taking two wickets in two balls on the morning of Day Three.
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He finished with figures of 4-79, his second-best with the ball in Test matches – just behind his Ahmedabad five-for – and was easily the pick of the bowlers. As much as the discourse on England’s spin attack in India has focussed on its inexperience, Root has also been central to that discussion. After Yashasvi Jaiswal rapidly destroyed hopes of England’s first innings total being par on the evening of Day One, Ben Stokes’ decision not to bowl Root – the only consistent option to take the ball away from the left-hander – came under scrutiny.
That was only compounded by the chances Root created when he did come on to bowl and the relative control he offered in comparison to the younger specialists. When he was eventually thrown the ball, for the first over of Day Two, Jaiswal only lasted four balls before he was gone. True, Jaiswal had significant input in his own downfall, but within the space of Root’s next two overs, India could well have been another two down. Ben Foakes missed an inside edge from KL Rahul’s bat two balls after Jaiswal’s wicket, and Stokes never sighted a high catch in the deep off Shubman Gill.
Despite England burning through their reviews on Day One, those three from Root were the only realistic chances created since Rohit Sharma’s wicket fell. In comparison, and while he was much tighter on Day Two, Tom Hartley conceded nine runs from the three balls that followed the Stokes error.
The headache Hartley’s lack of control has given England with four matches and, hopefully, another innings left in the series surpasses all talk of release points and ball speed. To look at the basic stats, Hartley averaged more in last year’s County Championship than Root does with the ball in Test matches (44.84 compared to 42.79). Putting a second left-arm finger spinner in the side on what isn’t a raging dust bowl was, in hindsight, an error.
While Hartley drawing slightly unfair comparisons to Simon Kerrigan’s debut at the Oval wasn’t in England’s plans, their premier reliable finger spinner damaging his knee on his comeback from injury definitely wasn’t either. That Jack Leach could only bowl 16 overs on Day Two took away England’s option for controlled spin, meant that Root had to get through a significant quota of overs, and had to be economical enough to compensate for runs being leaked at the other end.
As ever, when assigned a task to bear the brunt of the weight for the side, Root checked every box he could be expected to. He continued to create chances throughout the day, a couple to KS Bharat before he managed to trap on his pads, before the two-in-two balls this morning. It’s worth noting that it had been seven overs before those wickets that Root had conceded a boundary.
There have been low-level persistent questions about whether Root has been an underused part-timer for almost the entirety of his career. The circumstances in Hyderabad have created the perfect conditions to turn the volume up on that discourse again. An inexperienced finger-spinner, 19-year-old leggie and injured senior bowler with only one quick to support them on a pitch offering just enough for Root’s threshold to exploit gave him a chance to show his best.
Regardless of what a five-for on a freakish pitch in Ahmedabad says, Root’s not the type to normally steal the spotlight as England’s best spinner. Even when considering the others in this XI, Rehan Ahmed will outbowl everyone on his day, but at 19 those days will be irregular. Equally, the point of difference Root offered in this particular spin line-up was significant.
Root deserves every bit of praise for how he’s bowled over the last two days, and will surely play a part with the ball in the remainder of the series, but the bigger picture of why he had to bowl more overs than anyone else will be far more significant for the final scoreline.
Leach has been a significant if less brazen part to the Stokes’ approach since its inception. Throughout 2022 he provided the dependable presence England needed, and his injury on the eve of the Ashes was arguably the most disruptive possible to their plans. The nullification of his threat with injury he picked up on Day One was a repeat of that. Leach, when fit, is undoubtedly Stokes’ go-to spinner, but Root has put forward a compelling case to be his No. 2.
