With more than twice the number of runs of the next highest run-scorer in the series, Joe Root has looked unstoppable. Rohit Sankar dives into what India could do to mitigate the damage.

Six months ago, Joe Root started the India tour in outrageous fashion – a blistering double hundred on the most Indian of Indian wickets at Chepauk. He then went on to have an ordinary series, like every other England batter (or every other overseas batter who tours India) with six of his eight dismissals coming against spin.

But, the two that came against pace could well be the glitch India are frantically searching for in the machine Root has transformed himself into in the ongoing series.

Three hundreds in three Tests aside, Root’s extraordinary series is underlined by how he has single-handedly stood up with the bat for England. While Root has 507 runs in the series, his next best colleague has managed just 147. He’s survived two hat-trick balls in one innings, thwarted one of the world’s best pace attacks and flatlined criticisms surrounding his home numbers in this series.

Root is in god-mode, quickly making this series all about him and it seems India have no answers. So, let’s rock back to the glitch.

On day one of the fourth Test between England and India at Motera, Mohammed Siraj set Root up brilliantly with several away swingers before bringing one back into him to trap him in front. A neat setup. Worked on the day, sure, but what about it?

Joe Root began as a predominantly leg-side player with the flick one of the most attractive of his shots. This changed over the course of time as he adapted his technique to gain access to different parts of the ground. During the 2019 Ashes series, CricViz data on broadcast revealed how Root was struggling with the straighter balls on the stumps.

CricViz data features in this analysis of Joe Root’s technique. England’s captain has struggled with straight balls in recent times & it appears to have precipitated a change in his technique—moving more leg side—after being trapped lbw in the first innings. #Ashes pic.twitter.com/lo1aHutnom

— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) August 18, 2019

Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins relentlessly targeted the chink and kept his scoring shots to a minimum with the field. Four of his seven dismissals to quicks in the series were bowled or LBW. Two others were to corkers from Cummins (caught by the keeper at Lord’s) and Hazlewood (caught at slip at Headingley) respectively.

Until 2016, only 23.8 per cent of Root’s dismissals to pace were bowled or LBW. From then until 2020, it shot up to 36.6 per cent.
Since 2020, six of his 17 dismissals to pace have been bowled or LBW, roughly 35 per cent. Three of those are in home Tests and two of those have come in the ongoing series against India. One came on 64 and the other when he was on 121; to Shardul Thakur and Jasprit Bumrah respectively.

While the plan has largely worked for India against Root when they stick by it, it has taken time for them to maintain enough discipline to force an error from him. That’s primarily owing to how Root has counterattacked. His starts have mostly been pretty quick, while he has kept keeping himself busy to prevent bowlers from sticking to the same line of attack. At Lord’s, during one of his best ever Test tons, he left just seven per cent of his deliveries according to CricViz. He went to 40 off 65 balls, starting off with some crunching shots against pace. At Headingley, when Root walked in, England’s run rate was 2.56. By the time he crossed his fifty, it was close to three. Root’s innings finished with a seventy-plus strike-rate, the pace at which it came dictating England’s increasing hold in the game.

The Australian way of denying Root room and runs early on is something India should aim at. If that means bringing in a spinner early on to hold one end up while attacking with a quick, likely Bumrah, so be it. In his current purple patch, Root appears invincible, but it wasn’t long ago that the England skipper was struggling to counter deliveries hitting the stumps. The weakness has been tempered, but might not have deserted him yet, and India, despite having first-hand knowledge of it as evidenced by the few dismissals across the two Test series between these teams this year, have probably not been relentless enough in their bowling to Root.