Rajkot Test: Root cause of India's poor bowling show

Centurion Joe Root hails positive approach in England's domination over Indian bowlers as visitors pile up 311 for 4 on Day One of big series

England's Joe Root goes down on his knee to play a shot on the opening day of the first Test in Rajkot yesterday. Pic/AFP

With u00c2u0080u00c2u0088England skipper Alastair Cook enduring indifferent form, his deputy Joe Root stood up and made it count. Root's 180-ball 124 was the cornerstone of England's formidable 311-4 at close on Day One of the first Test against India yesterday.

This must be quite pleasing after Root's Bangladesh sojourn where he had scores of 40 and 1; 56 and 1 in the two Test matches that England played. Before that, he scored 6, 9 and 30 against Pakistan at home.

So, this knock was very important not only from England's point of view but Root's perspective as well and he readily agreed that it was pleasing to see his hard work come good.

"I worked on my defence to get it as solid as it could be, but without changing my approach while batting. We practiced really hard in Mumbai for couple of days leading up to this game. I worked really hard so that I feel confident and go and play my natural game. It was really pleasing to see my hard work come good today," said Root after the day's play.

Beauty to bat on
The wicket, though two-paced at times, was not that difficult to bat on and Root took full advantage to give England a solid start.

"I took advantage of a very good pitch, which might change in the course of five days, so it was important to start well and the way Moeen Ali and I batted, it will give us a lot of confidence going ahead in the series," said Root, who showed no sign of discomfort while taking on the Indian spinners.

"We looked really confident against the spinners and that is a good thing moving forward. It will give our guys confidence as well," added the England middle-order batsman, who showed scant respect for India's No. 1 spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

Fine approach
Was there any specific plan to tackle the Indian offie who is in great form at the moment having picked up 27 wickets in three Tests against New Zealand recently? "I didn't have any specific approach. More than anything, in the end, you just got play what is coming down, make sure not to go always with the spin but against the spin too if the opportunity is there and make it hard for him to bowl one length.

"I think if you can keep it as simple as that instead of looking at people's records and stuff like that," said Root.

"I was looking to be positive with my footwork, get right forward or get right back, use my feet at times and when it was available, use the sweep shots and not let the bowler settle to one line and length. Moeen too was playing quite freely at the other end and with the right and left-hand combination, it was difficult for them to do build any pressure," he added.

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