Root produced a scintillating knock of 46 in England’s second innings at Edgbaston.
In their second innings, England were struggling at 27/2 and the onus was on Root to take the hosts to a strong position. The right-hander certainly did his best to put the Aussie bowlers on the backfoot.
Root added 50 runs for the third wicket with Ollie Pope and followed it with a 52-run partnership with Harry Brook. His knock was studded with 5 fours and 1 six.
After the day’s play, former England skipper Kevin Pietersen issued a noteworthy statement about Root, who has 11,000+ runs and 30 hundreds to his name in the longest format of the game.
"The sky is the limit for Root with the brain he has and also his work ethic, which is like none other. With 11,000 Test runs, he could be, 'I've got enough, I could swan around, get a hundred, watch everyone the next morning warm up and play football with the lads'. No, no. Every single morning Root is out there wanting to improve. We are lucky enough to watch a master and long may that continue," Pietersen told Sky Sports.
Root attempted an adventurous reverse scoop to start the fourth day against Australia. He then executed a couple of his trademark ramp shot while facing Scott Boland.
"It would have been in those two months in the IPL [with Rajasthan Royals] where those shots would have been ingrained in his game," Pietersen added.
Joe Root was signed by Rajasthan Royals for INR 1 crore at the IPL mini-auction last December. He featured in three matches this season and got only one opportunity to showcase his batting skills, in which he scored 10 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Coming to the Edgbaston Test, England’s second innings folded for 273 as they set a target of 281 for the tourists.
At the close of play on Day 4, Australia were at 107/3 with Usman Khawaja (34*) and Scott Boland (13*) unbeaten in the middle, needing 174 more runs to win the Ashes opener.