India vs England 2021: Have To Find A Different Way Other Than Sweep Shot To Score Against India - Joe Root
Published - 04 Feb 2021, 05:27 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:40 AM
England’s captain, Joe Root opines that he would have to have more scoring shots other than the sweep and its derivatives to score runs in the Test series in India which begins on Friday. Joe Root put on, not one but two masterclass knocks of spin batting in Sri Lanka where he amassed 426 runs at 106.50 in 2 Tests.
His decisiveness of either going forward or on the backfoot and the shot-making was exemplary. Root employed a plethora of sweeps, reverse sweeps, paddle sweeps, even switch hits to accumulate runs off the Lankan spinners.
However, the right-hander reckons he has to find more ways of scoring runs against the Indian spinners. Joe Root asserts that he always looks to get better and find ways to manage to eke out runs even in difficult batting circumstances – a challenge which he is ready to undertake in India.
As quoted by Sportskeeda, Joe Root said, “The challenge here will be assessing what’s right in front of us, assessing the attack that they pick and then just trying to pick it apart and find a way of scoring runs. And it might be that I don’t have to sweep as much, or I chose not to sweep as much. But I’ll have to find a different way of scoring my runs, and that’s the beauty of batting.
“That’s the thing that I really enjoy about it is that you can’t just bank on one way of doing things all the time, you have to look to get better, you have to look at different ways of scoring runs and manipulate the field, and trying to get on top of the bowler. And when you come across one of the best sides in the world – especially in their own conditions – like India, that challenge is something that I am really looking forward to.
The sweep shot is a more dangerous shot on Indian pitched: Joe Root
The 30-year-old English skipper maintains that compared to the Sri Lankan pitches, tracks in India offer more bounce and if there is less turn, the sweep shot is harder to execute. Joe Root made his Test debut in Nagpur in 2012 in the series which England won – India’s last home Test series defeat – and is set to play his 100th Test match in Chennai.
The right-hander has been brilliant in Asian conditions – he averages 54.13, better than his career average of 49.39, with 4 hundred in Asia. Also, in the 2016 Test series in India, in which England lost 4-0, Joe Root was a big positive for the Three Lions as he scored 491 runs.
“It might be there’s a little more bounce, it might be that there’s not as much turn and it becomes a more dangerous shot out here. And I might have to find different ways of scoring runs, but I suppose that’s the art of batting, just trying to implement a game and strategy of scoring runs on different surfaces,” he added.
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