It was a flat Sydney pitch, and the Kookaburra quickly lost its zip in those days, but, nonetheless, Tendulkar resisted his natural instinct for nearly 10 hours not to score on the off side. It would go against this England team’s philosophy for Root to play a similar game, but maybe that is what is needed. The pink ball can go soft, and the pitch flatten out, there are times when Root could adopt a different strategy rather than be lulled into thinking it is destined to be a short, low-scoring shoot-out.
Perth increased the noise, especially because his two dismissals were familiar, and the long gap has left plenty of time to chew over it. At 99 for two when he came in, Root had an opportunity to emulate Virat Kohli a year ago and bag a third-innings hundred.
He decided not to play the pink-ball two-day game in Canberra, and it was probably a good choice. Jacob Bethell was pictured alongside Andrew Flintoff, covered with blankets to keep out the cold. It rained, and the bounce was low. Sam Konstas bowled his first ball in first-class cricket. It was going through the motions stuff and nothing close to a Test in hot and humid Brisbane.
The bounce at the Gabba will not be as dramatic as Perth, which has lured English batsmen to the rocks for decades. But Australia will play on Root’s dismissals in the first Test and dangle the tempter on fifth stump, knowing he likes to feel bat on ball and will wait for him to play his dab/punch on the off side that is his strength in England but weakness in Australia.
At home on faster and smaller outfields, those punches bring full value, but the Gabba outfield will be slow like Perth, and the shot will only bring one or tw,o which will play on his patience (the same goes for Ben Duckett, who has a similar issue) and questions its risk/reward value.
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“In England, that probably doesn’t carry; it drops short with soft hands,” said Root about his first-innings dismissal caught at slip. “It’s always easier to go from a high-bouncing place to a lower-bouncing place,” said Ian Chappell before the series. “I think that’s an easier adjustment to make.”
On his second innings in Perth, Root thought he was unlucky. “The way I started the second innings, being quite busy and proactive, was the right way to go. I just made a slight error of judgment, and it cost you. You could play and miss at that, or it goes between stumps and keeper and goes for four, and you never think about it again.”
His record at the Gabba is the story of his England career in Australia. He averages 36, not disastrous, but below standard for him. That hundred was within reach on the last tour. He made 89 in the second innings before edging Cameron Green behind on the fourth morning as England collapsed from 229 for three to 297 all out and lost later in the day by nine wickets.
If he had made another 11 runs, would it have mattered? Australia had to score only 20 in the second innings to win, and England would have lost anyway. But yes, it did matter. Those 11 runs would have lifted a burden off Root’s shoulders that he is carrying around on this tour. Arguably, it was more important for his own sake to score a hundred on previous trips than this one because right now the statistic that matters is him being on a winning side. If that does not change this week then it is all over for another tour.
Telegraph, London
