Joe Root has received flak from many cricket pundits for his ugly hoick in the second innings off R Ashwin.
RCB wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik has questioned Joe Root’s ultra-aggressive brand of cricket which led to his downfall in the second innings of the 2nd Test against India. Joe Root is having a poor series with the bat having scored just 52 runs in 4 innings so far. He has fully committed himself to England’s Bazball style of play which is also leading to his downfall.
Karthik argued that Root knows how to score 400, but he needs to play time with same intent. “He (Root) knows how to get to 400, three boundaries are not gonna make a difference. It’s about playing time with the same intent,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.
“The intent is okay. People need to understand one thing, there is a difference between having intent and playing attacking cricket. When you have intent, it’s just I am looking to score under pressure which could mean good single, good defense, and showing intent means playing shots that are my strengths.” Karthik further added.
Karthik further argued that Joe Root played high-risk cricket today and with a quality bowler like Ravichandran Ashwin in the opposition ranks, he will not get too many bad balls. “Joe Root is of the traditional mould but what he does when it comes to attacking intent would be playing the reverse sweeps, using the sweeps without thinking twice about the result,” Karthik said.
He further added, “It is about expressing yourself without the fear of failure, that’s what Bazball should mean. What Root did was attacking today and it was high-risk cricket and he knows Ashwin is a quality bowler, he’s not gonna away too many that gonna be put away that easily. So, did Root play a poor shot? I think so for sure.”
Joe Root has been England’s best batter for past few years now and his lack of runs in this series is costing his team. In the last innings of the 2nd Test, he failed to get a big score and got out for a breezy 10-ball 16. With an attempt to loft Ravichandran Ashwin over midwicket, he gave a simple catch to Axar Patel at backward point. As a result, England failed to chase 399 and were dismissed for 292, thus losing the match by 106 runs.
Former England cricketer Michael Atherton too has criticized Root for his poor shot. With this result, the series has been levelled at 1-1 with three more Tests to play. The next Test will be played at Rajkot from February 15-19.
