"You Get To See Very Few Knocks Like This In Test Cricket"- Sunil Gavaskar On Joe Root's Hundred

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar hailed England Test skipper Joe Root for his splendorous batting performance against India in the first Test played at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

The first match of the five-Test series ended in an unexpected draw after rains spoiled the gameplay of the entire fifth day in Nottingham. India needed 157 runs to win on the final day with the advantage of nine wickets in their hands, the match could see a likely result going in either team’s favor but the weather in England had some different plan.

Sunil Gavaskar applauds Joe Root

Root led England’s charge in the absence of star all-rounder Ben Stokes, the skipper mustered scores of 64 and 109 in his respective innings against India. Gavaskar was particularly awestruck with Root’s 21st Test hundred which helped England take a lead of 208 runs in the second innings.  The former Indian skipper said that whoever watched Root’s stupendous knock was very fortunate enough.

“Whoever watched Joe Root’s knock is fortunate that they saw such a knock. You get to see very few knocks like this in Test cricket, the second-innings century of Joe Root was an extremely good knock,” Sunil Gavaskar was quoted as saying on Sony Sports.

Joe Root’s resilience against India

England were trailing by 95 runs when they came in to bat in the second innings and lost two top-order batsmen in the span of 17 overs. When Root came at the crease, the team was still 49 runs behind India and from there on the captain lead from the front taking on the lethal attack of Indian pacers.

In his 172-ball 109-run inning, Root scored as many as 14 boundaries at the strike rate of 63.37 and he departed when England had a substantial lead of 179. Gavaskar said Root carried his first-inning form and cleverly attacked the Indian bowlers else England‘s batting would have struggled in the second innings.

“It was a captain’s knock. You need to remember that when he came into bat the Indian team was still ahead and two wickets had fallen, the Indian team had a 95-run lead. That lead had to be crossed and then runs had to be scored,” Sunil Gavaskar mentioned.

“The way Joe Root batted it seemed like the top score he had made in the first innings, he had scored 64 runs, he had the confidence of that knock in the second innings.”

“Otherwise, we can also see from a different angle, that he probably wanted to attack the Indian bowlers. If he had not attacked, the Indian bowlers would have been on top of the England batting and they might have faced some difficulty,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded.

India will play England in the second Test at the Lord’s in London on August 12 (Thursday).