We knew arriving in India that Joe Root was England’s most important batsman. One innings in the field has revealed that he is quite possibly their most important bowler, too.
On the third morning Jack Leach, the senior spinner who is only just back from a serious back injury, took the field with almost comical strapping on his left knee, after a couple of uncomfortable bashes in the field. Leach bowled just one underpowered over, from which India scored nine of the 15 runs they managed in the mini-session.
Putting your body on the line is a non-negotiable of this team, as Leach showed on their very first morning under Brendon McCullum in 2022, clattering into the boundary at Lord’s and suffering a concussion. Ollie Pope aggravated a shoulder injury fielding when he should not at the same ground in last year’s Ashes.
Leach looked like a man who should be rehabilitating to ensure he is ready for a possible fourth innings, or at least the second Test, which begins on Friday, rather than heavily tumbling around in the field again, which he did.
Through the pain, Leach was tidy on day two, but unable to bowl the volume of overs, or length of spell, that England require of him. He bowled 16 overs across six spells, the longest of which lasted just four overs. Before the tour, Stokes would have banked on Leach’s workload being twice as great.
In his absence, Root stepped up. Having been ignored on day one – a mistake Ben Stokes surely will not make again, given Yashasvi Jaiswal’s treatment of Tom Hartley – Root shuffled through 23 overs on the second day. Either side of tea, he bowled 16 overs. By the time he was done, picking up two more wickets on day three, he had bowled 29 overs, more than any other bowler and his equal most in a Test innings, and had figures of four for 79. Only his faintly absurd five for eight in Ahmedabad three years ago betters that analysis in his 137-Test career.
Root was the most threatening England bowler by some distance. He turned the ball with greater fizz and found more consistent turn and bounce than his colleagues. He was the first to take a wicket by actually beating the bat, when No 7 KS Bharat was pinned lbw, after the first five wickets all fell to miscued attacking strokes. He trapped Ravindra Jadeja lbw and bowled Jasprit Bumrah in successive balls on the third morning; will he ever have a better chance of a Test hat-trick?
This is his 11th Test across four tours to India, and 24th Test in Asia. The England assistant coach, the former New Zealand and Warwickshire spinner Jeetan Patel, believes that along with experience, the secret to Root’s secondary skill lies in his primary skill.
“The beauty of having Joe Root, is that he knows how to bat,” said Patel. “He knows what pitches are doing, how to create opportunities. We have always spoken about how we will take wickets.
“Joe has an ability to think how will I take a wicket, how will I change a game. It might not be for him, it might be fir his mate. We saw that here, typical Joe Root, creating opportunities. Yes, he got hit for boundaries but that’s Joe Root, he bowls attacking deliveries and asks attacking questions. He was fantastic I thought.
“Joe hit and missed the seam purposely. On these sorts of pitches I believe it’s about how many times you can hit the seam, but also can you miss the seam too, because it’s just as dangerous.”
Root reminding England of his quality with the ball has two knock-ons. First, it means the top three need to give him plenty of rest, because not many front-line bowlers bat No 4. Second is that they can rebalance the attack, because he is too good to be the fourth spinner, especially given those in front of him. Right now, Rehan Ahmed feels a luxury item that is unlikely to contribute heavily with bat or ball. Two left-arm spinners feels too many.
Anderson or Robinson must now start every Test
Having no bowler who actually wants the new ball seems a misstep, too. Mark Wood has a role to play in these conditions, but if he has a specialism it is with the older ball. At least one of Jimmy Anderson and Ollie Robinson – both of whom have had success in the subcontinent before – must play every Test from here.
Hartley and Ahmed will be better for their experience here, and Shoaib Bashir should arrive in India on Sunday to provide another option, although it is possible the Vizag Test comes too soon for him, given the curious week he has had. Things are barely better in Ahmedabad for the Lions, where Callum Parkinson went wicketless in an innings defeat for which Jack Carson was dropped. Would Liam Dawson answer a call after being overlooked, and told that England have picked the spinners whose style they believe will succeed? The jury is out.
For now, with Leach feeling his way back and picking up knocks along the way, Root has his work cut out. As England’s premier all-rounder in Hyderabad, he had a quiet Test with the bat, but not with the ball and, with the fourth innings to come, there is still work to be done.
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