Mark Butcher has backed Joe Root to fix England's T20I woes facing spin as a T20 World Cup in Asia looms.
England have been troubled by India's spinners, in particular Varun Chakravarthy, in the ongoing IND v ENG T20 series. They lost the first T20I of the series after they were bowled out for 132, before also suffering collapses in the second and third matches. Chakravarthy has taken 10 wickets across the first three matches of the series, including a five-for in the third. Jos Buttler is the only batter to score more than 60 runs for England in the series. He has scored 137 runs at a strike rate of 142.70, while the next highest run scorer for England is Ben Duckett with 58.
Root is a well renowned player of spin, and recently made scores of 92* and 78* in the SA20. He has not played a T20I for England since 2019 but, with a T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in India and Sri Lanka in 2026, Butcher has backed calls for Root to return to the side to shore up their approach to spin bowling.
"One thing that you know from McCullum and Stokes is they are not shy of going against decisions that have been made in the past and deciding that actually for this particular assignment we need something that we’d moved on from," Butcher said, speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast. "It wouldn’t be the maddest thing in the world, he is still a fabulous player, and it plays in rather well with the idea of playing the spin a little bit more off the back foot than the front foot. I mean, who’s better at doing that than Joe at getting the guys to overpitch before he comes forward? So it’s not beyond the realms of possibility."
Root has an impressive T20I record in India where he averages 53.57 from 10 matches. He was part of the England side which reached the T20 World Cup final in India in 2016, when they were beaten in a thrilling finish following a string of sixes from Carlos Brathwaite.
India's spinners have been in complete control in the series so far, with Chakravarthy, Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi taking 16 of the 28 wickets to fall.
"You need to play more on the back foot," said Butcher. "You need to be more back on your stumps. If you’re not picking it out of the hand you need to give yourself a bit more time to pick it off the pitch. If you are having real difficulty picking it, the last thing you want to be doing is getting out either going out of your crease on the front foot or committing yourself to the front foot, because then it is very difficult to find a gap just to score a single, let alone hit the big shot.
“If the ball is that little bit shorter they can hit it with a straight bat over mid off and mid on. Who is better at doing that than Rooty, getting the guys to overpitch before committing himself to come forward?”
Root has now left the SA20 to join up with the England squad ahead of their ODI series in India. He has not played an ODI since the 2023 World Cup, his recall to the side coming after Brendon McCullum took over as head coach of England's white-ball sides.
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