Joe Root continues to be criticised for his ill-fated attempt at playing a reverse scoop off the bowling of Jasprit Bumrah in the recent Rajkot Test that resulted in his dismissal and triggered England batting collapse.
With a well-set Ben Duckett at the non-striker’s end on 141, Root, in what was the fifth over of Day 3, went for the risky shot keeping in with England’s aggressive approach with the bat in Test cricket. He couldn’t pull it off and was caught at second slip for 18 off 31.
England were 224/3 when Root made his exit and they were bowled out for 319 in reply to India’s first innings total of 445.
Australia great Ian Chappell has lashed out at England’s approach, reportedly terming ‘Bazball’ as ‘bulls***’ in an interview with Wide World of Sports.
Chappell says Root, who has scored over 11,000 runs in Test cricket, was quite good before buying into England’s new approach to continuously attack bowlers.
“Root had a bloody fine record playing normally, and he was a quick scorer playing normally,” he said. “I don’t see why he’s trying to change things drastically, and I’ve never believed you should play premeditated shots. You can’t always do it – it’s got to be according to the conditions and also who’s bowling.”
Chappell said to deal with difficult bowlers, a batter must be ready to see through the storm.
“Some bowlers you can score off a lot quicker than others, but when a really good bowler is bowling a good spell, you’ve got to be prepared to try and battle it out and think to yourself ‘Well, when he goes off, it’ll get a bit easier’,” he said.
“You’re always trying to score runs – that’s got to be your prime aim. But, you’ve also got to realise in some conditions, against some bowlers you can score quicker than others,” he added.
However, England head coach Brendon McCullum has launched a staunch defense of Root.
“People see a shot like that and go, ‘Joe Root is struggling to deal with this new regime’, (but) his impact on the game is still very, very significant,” McCullum told the BBC.
“Imagine if this becomes the norm for Joe as well – with the talent he possesses and the history he’s got, what’s the ceiling? Do we want just a normal Joe Root, or do we want an even better Joe Root? How many games are we going to win if that happens?” he added.
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