India vs England 2021: Joe Root Is The Best England Batsman Of Playing Spin Bowling - Nasser Hussain

Former England captain, Nasser Hussain hails Joe Root as the best batsman against spinners England has ever produced. Hussain also slams the critics who thought that the current England skipper is not as good a batsman as Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, and Kane Williamson after a Test century-less year in 2020.

While Joe Root may not have notched up a three-figure Test score last year, he did average 42 with the bat. The right-hander, who often received flak for not converting his fifties to hundreds, has plundered 3 hundreds in as many matches in 2021.

All of his 3 hundreds, including a double ton, this year have come in Asia – 2 in Sri Lanka and one versus India – where he put on an exemplary display of playing the sweep shots and reverse sweeps, making Nasser Hussain claim that he hasn’t seen any Englishman play the tweakers better than Root.

“Some people were starting to doubt if he belongs to that group of Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, and Steve Smith when he went through a lean patch last year – but don’t forget he was still averaging 40 in that period!” Nasser Hussain wrote in his column for Sky Sports.

“His playing of spin is phenomenal; I don’t know of an England cricketer who is a better player of spin, especially when it comes to sweeping,” he claimed.

Joe Root has analysed his game pretty well: Nasser Hussain

The 52-year-old cricketer-turned-commentator lauds Root’s comeback to his absolute best batting form. Hussain reckons the 30-year-old has learned from watching videos of other batters and is more confident and enjoyable to watch.

“During the long break enforced by lockdown and the pandemic he thought ‘how am I going to go back to being the Joe Root that I was? He watched videos of various people and looked at his game and three hundreds in a row suggests he’s analysed his game pretty well! He’s an absolute joy to watch; at no stage do you sit there feeling uncomfortable because he’s so pleasing on the eye,” Nasser Hussain added.

Root’s ton in Chennai had put the visitors on top after Day 1 against India and he would hope to pile on runs along with other batsmen to bat the hosts out of the game – not to forget England lost by an innings despite scoring 477 in their previous match in Chennai.

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