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Joe Root has acknowledged that India used emotions to their advantage to script an epic win against England at Lord’s in the second Test. The England skipper admitted his tactical gaffes helped India gain the upper hand in the Test.
England were ahead in the closely-contested Test until the first hour of the fifth day after India lost two wickets in succession and the visitors' lead was still far from 200 runs. But India’s tail wagged as an unlikely unbeaten 89-run ninth-wicket stand between Mohammed Shami (56*) and Jasprit Bumrah (34)* helped Virat Kohli and co. set England a target of 272.
The Test witnessed verbal tiffs between the Indian and English players. Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, the Player of the Match, both admitted that those emotionally charged moments helped the tourists gain an edge. Joe Root said after the match:
“Fair play to Virat (Kohli) and his team. They jumped on to something that emotionally gave them an edge. I think a lot falls on my shoulders as captain. Tactically, I could have done things slightly differently."
Root added:
“The (Shami and Bumrah partnership) was the pivotal moment of the game, without question, and I don’t think I dealt with that well enough tactically. It put us in a difficult position. Looking back, I’d look at some of the field placings and the way that we bowled. We could have looked at maybe attacking the stumps a little bit more frequently and using the short ball as more of a surprise.”
Joe Root also credited Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah for scoring runs in unusual areas. He explained:
“We have to give them some credit. They scored in unusual areas and made it hard to set conventional fields, and (we) were trying to manage taking wickets but not letting the game get away from us. But I would have taken a little bit more time and probably brought more modes of dismissal into the game sooner. When the ball got softer, it didn’t seem to move as much laterally as with the newer ball, but we probably underestimated how useful challenging a lower-order player’s defence can be.”
Joe Root laments England’s batting failures
With two centuries and a fifty to his name, Joe Root is averaging almost 129 in the ongoing five-match Test series. England’s next best batter in the series is Jonny Bairstow, who averages 100 points less than his captain and fellow Yorkshireman.
England’s batting collapses in 2021 has been an area of massive concern. Reflecting on the same, Joe Root said:
“Credit to India, but I don’t think there is any hiding from the fact we need to get better. We need to score heavier. The guys will know that. They [England batters] are working extremely hard. We need to be better at building big partnerships."
He added:
“We did it well for periods in this game in the first innings, but we need to do it for longer and make it count, make it last. We also need to be better at starting our innings, finding a way into the match.”
The arena now shifts to Joe Root’s home ground Headingley in Leeds, the venue for the third Test starting August 25.
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