Legendary England batter and former captain, Alastair Cook, reckoned that Joe Root's form in Test cricket has been impacted by the Bazball approach. Root has been England's top batter for years, but he has been struggling for runs in the Bazball era as his struggle continues on the India tour.
After Root recorded scores of 29, 2, 5, and 16 in the two matches in India, Cook hailed the former England captain as one of their greatest batters but felt the Bazball approach was not suiting him.
Alastair Cook said on TNT Sports: “He is England’s best batsman there’s ever been in all formats – but he does struggle sometimes with the tempo of this Bazball era.”
Cook mentioned that Root is desperate to adapt to England's new style of cricket, "Bazball," as the rest of the England batters have embraced the aggressive approach seamlessly in Test cricket.
The commentator continued, “He sees all these other people playing these aggressive shots, which suit their style. Rooty has got 11,500 Test runs, he’s brilliant, but he’s so desperate to fit in to what Ben (Stokes) and Brendon (McCullum) are doing that sometimes I don’t think he gets his balance of attack and defence right.”
Cook signed off by saying, “He was on 16 off nine balls and he doesn’t normally strike at that rate – he’s normally striking at 75 to 80, which is still incredibly high for a Test match strike-rate, with zero risk. That’s when I love watching Joe Root bat.”
England lost the second Test against India as Root failed to deliver and scored 5 and 16 across two innings. Cook said that Root didn’t look like he was in control as he was trying to score quick runs to match the tempo with other players which backfired for him.
“When he gets in, you call it early – I’ve called it early a few times on sub-continent days: he’s on 15 but he’s getting a hundred here. He’s going to milk them at his will, sweeps, all in control. I don’t think he was in that control,” he added.
The third Test of the series will begin on February 15 in Rajkot.
