Joe Root - the stupidest shot in English test cricket history

[goose]

Root is getting an absolute hammering in the English press. Scyld Berry for the Telegraph :

 

Joe Root’s latest Bazball shot is the stupidest in English Test cricket history

It has to rank – and “rank” is the operative word – as the worst, most stupid, shot in the history of England’s Test cricket.

Joe Root will sense it as much as anyone, after his self-dismissal, which was 100 per cent batsman-error. Every run that India score in their second innings will be a torment, because he knows that he could still have been batting, had he not yielded to impulse.

Root’s reverse-scoop at India’s most dangerous bowler, Jasprit Burmah, wrecked England’s chances of winning this Test and this series. Never mind, for the moment, the team strategy of Bazball: what mattered was the situation of the game, the current circumstances, the here and now. And what Root did flew in the face of what everything dictated, as he himself realised in his moment of wisdom after the event, when he stomped off furious with himself.

 

 

Ravi Ashwin, the taker of 500 Test wickets, was unable to take the field after flying home for family reasons. India were therefore down to four bowlers. One of them, Bumrah, was even more dangerous than usual because it was the first hour of day three, the only time of day when the pitch is slightly damp and the ball does a bit. The old adage of giving the first hour to the bowler, while often out of date, applied on this occasion.

India had been bereft of ideas by the end of day two. Rohit Sharma was at his wit’s end when it came to containing Ben Duckett. All Root had to do was hang around for the first hour, for the sake of his partner, playing straight and normally, and wait till Duckett’s juices were flowing again. Which is what Root had been doing, stroking the ball, as when he caressed a wide ball from Bumrah behind point, not trying to hit the ball too hard or being funky.

The cardinal sin in India is to give a wicket away, because one wicket usually brings two, or a cluster. Root made life difficult for Duckett. He made it impossible for Jonny Bairstow, who came in with fielders round the bat, the crowd stirred up, and immediately succumbed to India’s wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav. The wickets continued to tumble from there.

 

 

[Frustrated]

I m sure the Australian media will make the most fun out of it.   They are at their best when it comes to roasting the poms.  

[Majestic]

He deserves anhiliation for this kind of play in such a crucial juncture of the game. A player of his stature should be embarassed with that shot. This guy scored 750 runs in a series last time vs India when the second best batsman had scored 350 odd.

[R!TTER]

No it's still Gatting's reverse sweep - that turned the Oz rudderless ship into a freakin aircraft carrier!

[Number]

Deserves a lot of criticism.

[Norman]

He played this shot so many times over the past couple of years and everyone was going ga ga over it when he successfully executed it almost everytime. 

 

How is it any different if say Duckett gets out while playing a reverse sweep?

[putrevus]

Joe Root is his own worst enemy.He lacks patience to fight out of tough spots.

 

There was no need to play that shot.All his shots in this series have been awful.

[putrevus]

1 minute ago, Norman said:

He played this shot so many times over the past couple of years and everyone was going ga ga over it when he successfully executed it almost everytime. 

 

How is it any different if say Duckett gets out while playing a reverse sweep?

Difference is Root has decent technique to battle out both spinners and fast bowlers. Duckett not so much so, so his only option like Crawley is to attack.

[nevada]

It looks terrible when he gets out but like genius when it sails over the slips to the boundary. And, remember that it was an excellent catch by Jaiswal that got Root out. I doubt any other Indian slip fielder would have pouched it. 

[Bigg Brother]

Arguably the GOAT English batter is wasted away by this bazball regime. 

[bowl_out]

More than Root playing the shot, the choice of when to play it was the problem. He was stupid to play such a shot so early in the day and early in his innings.  

Bazball is not about smashing every bowler but also being smart about when to attack. With Ashwin gone, Jaddu coming back from injury, Bumrah being considered for rest due to playing back to back Tests, and Siraj/Kuldeep not in the best of forms,  Root just had to hang around and tire the bowlers before going for the kill. Had he played the shot when he was on 120 or when England were ahead by 20 runs, there would be far less criticism even if he got out.

[coffee_rules]

Stupidest is an understatement if he has got out like this 9 times in recent times to give away an advantage for England 

[ungboysj]

50 minutes ago, Bigg Brother said:

Arguably the GOAT English batter is wasted away by this bazball regime. 

I feel for him my favourite batsman destroyed by bazball

[vvvslaxman]

Stupidest shots in this series itself belongs to Indians not Root lol We played a lot more dumb shots. We should be leading 2-0 but for those shots.

[Vijy]

3 hours ago, Bigg Brother said:

Arguably the GOAT English batter is wasted away by this bazball regime. 

how is he even "arguably" the GOAT? even in post WW2 era, likes of hutton, compton, barrington are better than him comfortably. and KP and May are nearly his equal.

among the ones I saw, barrington was comfortably better than all Eng bats (did not see hutton & compton in post WW2).

[Vijy]

1 hour ago, vvvslaxman said:

Stupidest shots in this series itself belongs to Indians not Root lol We played a lot more dumb shots. We should be leading 2-0 but for those shots.

so many of them.

[Majestic]

42 minutes ago, Vijy said:

how is he even "arguably" the GOAT? even in post WW2 era, likes of hutton, compton, barrington are better than him comfortably. and KP and May are nearly his equal.

among the ones I saw, barrington was comfortably better than all Eng bats (did not see hutton & compton in post WW2).

Compton was a HTB. Barrington was England's Chanderpaul. May is England's VVS and KP is inferior to Root.

 

Root is England's best batsman since Hutton.Among all the English batsman in this era, he averages 12 higher than the second best batsman in the team which tells us how far he is ahead of his teammates and without the support he has achieved this much.

Edited February 17 by Majestic

[Vijy]

1 hour ago, Majestic said:

Compton was a HTB. Barrington was England's Chanderpaul. May is England's VVS and KP is inferior to Root.

 

Root is England's best batsman since Hutton.Among all the English batsman in this era, he averages 12 higher than the second best batsman in the team which tells us how far he is ahead of his teammates and without the support he has achieved this much.

it only tells us he is much better than his contemporaries, which is not saying much because the other eng batters are very poor.

 

I am glad you at least admit root is not better than hutton. However, you don't know barrington's career much and have not seen him, so I would recommend reading up more on him. he had a complete game with attacking strokes, but had to focus chiefly on defense (especially overseas) to prop up his team.

 

In a nutshell, Barrington was much better than root. The latter did poorly in Aus (the "Great Enemy"), which cannot be said of barrington (even barry's "worst" away batting avg [in WI] is over 44). as someone who saw him, he was proficient vs spin, vs swing, and vs bounce. root has a weakness vs bounce, which Aus exploited despite Oz pitches being somewhat flat from mid-2000s until late 2010s (or even till 2020).

 

last, but not least, Barry had severe health issues (culminating in a heart attack at 37-ish), and still played with the courage of a lion. If Root had such issues, he would be at high risk to be struck on the heart, head, etc. remember that such blows were common in the era before helmets, and with unlimited bouncers allowed.

 

@Tattieboy could tell you more about the great Ken, IMO.

 

i still rate root higher than all but smith in this era, but there is no need for hyperbole.

Edited February 17 by Vijy

[Vijy]

root is mentally rather weak as well, as shown by his performances against the one opposition that Eng rate the most: Oz in Oz. This is in contrast to mentally stronger bats like Cook and Barrington.

[BacktoCricaddict]

I fervently hope that it does not remain his stupidest lapse of judgment in this series.