Star England veteran Joe Root’s Bazball-like approach backfired big time on Saturday after being superbly caught at slip in bizarre circumstances.
But one England great had no problem with Root’s brash shot, despite the ultimately ugly dismissal during the third day of the third Test against India at Rajkot.
With Root seemingly set at the crease and opener Ben Duckett eyeing a big century, Root on Saturday attempted a reverse scoop off Jasprit Bumrah – India’s fastest bowler – but only succeeded in guiding the ball to young gun Yashasvi Jaiswal at second slip to be out for 18.
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Seemingly caught off-guard that the ball had come to him via a reverse scoop shot – rather than a conventional outside edge – Jaiswal juggled the ball but hung on to it to take a sharp chance.
“Unbelievable catch,” Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar said on the TV broadcast.
“It’s very difficult when a batsman is looking to play the reverse scoop to keep your focus on the edge – because suddenly the edge is gone with the reverse scoop. When you’re playing a normal drive, you’re seeing the back of the bat and the edge.
“Now suddenly you’re seeing the face of the bat, so it’s never easy for a slips fielder to do that. So it’s a great catch.”
But as brilliant as Jaiswal’s fielding was, Root’s shot selection and poor execution – especially amid a poor run of form with the bat, averaging just 14 runs against India so far this series – ignited a debate between a couple of cricket greats.
“Joe Root is furious with himself because he probably feels he should’ve hit that for four and why was he playing that shot at that particular time,” ex-England opener Nick Knight said in commentary.
“It is what they (England) do, but on this occasion Joe Root … will feel like he’s missed out massively.
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“It’s a brave shot that’s brought him a lot of runs over an extended period. But I just feel right now, he’s short of runs, it’s a flat pitch at the start of day three, Ben Duckett is at the other end, England on top going at five-and-a-half runs per over – you wonder whether he might look back and think ‘maybe I could’ve held that back for a bit longer’.”
Root’s shot personified England’s ‘Bazball’ attitude to Test cricket since Ben Stokes took over as captain and Brendon McCullum as coach.
Former England spinner Graeme Swann said he didn’t have an issue with Root’s choice of shot, despite the circumstances.
“If you live by the sword, you die by the sword,” Swann said in commentary.
“The shot to traditionalists and people watching the game, they will be throwing their hands up and saying: ‘What’s he doing? He’s too good for those shots.’ Well it’s brought him a lot of runs and he’s played it early on. It really is designed to throw a bowler off their length.
“If it doesn’t work, yes it looks bad … but my argument is if you were willing to accept the way Ben Duckett batted (on Friday) with his very unorthodox shots, that is all part of this new, fearless approach and putting pressure on the bowlers. If you’re happy to accept that brilliant hundred, you’ve got to accept it won’t work at all times for everybody.
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“When it goes wrong, you have to take the rough with the smooth.”
But former Indian all-rounder Ravi Shastri said he didn’t understand why Root had to dramatically change his previously-successful approach to batting.
“The counter to that (Swann’s argument) is that people have seen him score 9000-plus runs,” Shastri said. “And having seen a lot of players who have scored that many runs over the last 10 to 15 years, the beauty about Root’s batting was that when he was in, the tempo and momentum he maintained allowed him to score at a very good rate.
“Therein lies the argument: When someone is scoring so freely, can one guy in the side carry on in that fashion as opposed to the others?
“When you look at Stokes, he takes his time. He’s in no hurry to try the reserves and the sweeps straight away. He could bat like this (defensively) for half an hour. If he’s in then take a look.”
Former England spinner Phil Tufnell said on BBC Sport: “Joe Root is not a Bazballer. Reverse sweeping, 10 minutes into day thee to the best seam bowler in the world, fraught with danger. Come on!”
Fellow England top-order batter Jonny Bairstow quickly followed Root back to the dressing room, out LBW off Kuldeep Yadav’s bowling to leave the visitors 4-225 – still 220 runs behind India – at Rajkot.