The rot started with Root. On the third morning, it happened just five times in the day at the sunny Niranjan Shah Cricket Stadium. The moment that left teary-eyed England fans groaning into their muesli as they set their Saturday morning alarms for the promise of more high-octane Stokes nonsense. In fact, it was probably still too early for a living. At 4.22am UK time, just before 10am locally, Joe Root – the prince of the modern English batting – mischievously hopped up to his own crease and attempted a backhander to Jasprit Bumrah.
You will probably know what a shot is; You probably giggled with glee as Root bowled against Naseem Shah’s timid pace or Neil Wagner’s jittery pads. He sat in slack-jawed daze when he tried to bowl the first ball of the day against Pat Cummins in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston last summer, or whooped with joy when he later hit it successfully over Mitch Marsh and Scott Boland.
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This delivery has been Root’s signature shot ever since he relinquished the captaincy and quickly rejoined the ranks a few years ago. For all its velvety movement, sharp-eyed sweeps and Andrex’s smooth slide behind point, this is the shot Root has most enjoyed playing in the last few years.
You guessed it, that got him out. The delivery from Bumrah was wide off stump and in the slot for that, it could be a ball in the slot for such an angle-defying daredevil strike. Root got into position early, pre-empted the bucket and played it in his unique style (he looked like a man banging a dusty mop against a garden wall), but failed to gain the necessary height. Instead of flying over the slips, the ball darted towards Yashasvi Jaiswal at the cordon and the youngster clung to a sharp catch.
Root threw back his head in disgust and stormed off the field, the gamble having not paid off this time. India took advantage of this swing and turned it into a complete somersault of the English wickets. The visitors gave up a strong position throughout the night, losing eight of their 112 runs, and ultimately finished the day 322 runs behind. Ben Stokes’s side were miserable in the Rajkot heat and walked away from the field at the close, with eight Indian wickets still to be taken before they could begin their inevitable chase.
As England fell apart, Root’s shot selection quickly became the subject of much tongue-wagging. The Guardian’s OBO broadcast resembled a late-night/early-morning radio call, with punters picking up their keyboards in the dark and getting in touch to either denigrate Root’s “brain deterioration” or, oddly enough, celebrate it.
The first rule of Bazball may very well be that you don’t talk (or, according to Brendon McCullum, don’t say the word in the first place). Don’t think much further about the delicate alchemy of risk, reward and pseudo-fearlessness that underpins Bazball. But maybe the naysayers had a point this time? With India’s star bowler defeated after Ravichandran Ashwin pulled out of the match overnight due to a family emergency, England had the chance to make “moving day” their own and go up to and beyond India’s first innings score of 445. Root was clearly feeling bad. He had driven Bumrah for four in the previous over and had Ben Duckett humming positively at the other end. Perhaps Bumrah had a few more overs left in his spell and sensible cricketing logic would have suggested seeing him off, leaving the backhand at the bottom of the bag for now and making hay as the day progresses.
For all their pub-emptying actions and giggle-inducing disheartening actions, one thing Stokes’ side can perhaps be accused of is a lack of ruthlessness. Root’s dismissal caused minds to turn to Lord’s Test and a similar situation in last year’s Ashes series.
With England going flying with the bat and Nathan Lyon injured, Pat Cummins ran out of ideas and resorted to the heavily signposted short-ball scheme. Instead of seeing the bigger picture, England got caught up in the moment, chased the short ball and vanished, surrendering a 91-run first innings lead in the process and going on to lose a tight Test by just 43 runs.
It goes without saying that most England players and fans do not see it that way. Asked about Root’s dismissal after the knock, Duckett was clear: “In my eyes it’s the same as driving and moving to second slip.”
There’s a reason why cricket fans on the Stokes Test side are clamoring for an alarm clock in the wee hours. They demonstrated. There’s never a dull moment. It’s worth waking up for them. For better or worse, something crazy can happen before you brush your teeth or the trash cans are tidied. Even so, if the match goes this way and India takes a 2-1 lead in the series, the The moment it starts to fall apart will be obvious to players with ingrained intelligence like Root and Stokes. Whether they choose to regret it or not, whether they actually learn from it or not.