England’s captain is his team’s talisman. For as long as he occupies the crease, all is well in their world. But there is only one of him. cricket TheAshes theagesport
Rarely can a Test team’s standing have been so dependent on one man’s competence as England’s is on Joe Root. This was the status quo at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday. While he was at the crease, England put on 138. Without him, they made 98 for the other nine wickets.
Root rarely appears to labour or force. He measures off the length of each delivery as if with a protractor. He doesn’t just put his head over the ball, he bends over it, as if over a microscope. He is precise in his runmaking. When the chance comes, he lofts the ball rather than clobbers it. He leaves extravagance for others. He is not in England’s T20 team.
Root’s orthodoxy is not a straitjacket. He is proactive at the crease, as a man must be at a level where no one gives away runs.He plays back and takes balls from the line of off-stump for boundaries as well as any batter did or does. He plays the reverse sweep not as an indulgence but as first-order tactic, to take spinners off their line and length. He made Nathan Lyon second-guess himself.
That was Friday night. On Saturday, the sun shone, a knelt breeze blew, and the pitch was still unmarked, a table set for batting. After the tumult of the first two days, a calm came over the game. It was very nearly serene. The Barmy Army forewent their customary raucousness and merely hummed along.
A third hour dawned. England ticked along. Malan passed through 50, then Root. The milestone prompted a polite round of applause, for a well-made and well-mannered innings. For the second time this series, Root and Malan negotiated a session together.
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