Ashes: The Joe Root reinvention no one saw coming

The England batter's career has found second wind, and it is blowing more with gale force to align with the team's 'Bazball' approach

Two wickets down on an overcast Birmingham morning, guarding a measly lead of 35, this is how Joe Root played Scott Boland in the second over of the first session on Monday.

Joe Root plays a shot from the opening ball bowled on day 4 of the first Ashes Test (AFP)

Ball 1: Straight batted defence, back to the bowler.

Ball 2: Left the crease, went across the stumps to make a good-length ball end up on his pads and clipped it through midwicket for four.

Ball 3: Another good length delivery but this time Root played a reverse scoop that sailed over the wicketkeeper for six.

Ball 4: Another reverse ramp, this time over the slip cordon for four.

Ball 5: Length ball, left alone.

Ball 6: Seeing Boland pitch slightly fuller, Root leaned into the delivery and caressed it through point for two runs.

The leave, the straight-bat defence and the square drive are a purist’s delight. The flick through midwicket is more field awareness, dexterity and placement than timing. But in the reverse scoops flourish an alter ego of Root, who almost regularly finds the bench in the shortest form of cricket, IPL most recently.

It also makes you forget this was the third innings of a fascinating Test where England, contrary to the vibe they have largely transmitted in the past year, not only lacked a healthy edge but were also cornered in their quest to set Australia a worthy target in a home Ashes opener.

It’s gripping as well because for more than a decade Root — along with Kane Williamson — had made it a habit of staying under the radar, unlike, say, Virat Kohli, who has an undeniable flair, or Steve Smith because you never know which idiosyncratic shot he might conjure up.

Nothing has been inevitable about Root’s latest though. ‘Bazball’ might walk away with all the credit, but had it not been for Root’s will to unlearn and learn after relinquishing captaincy, he wouldn’t have emerged front, right and centre of England’s aggression in both innings at Edgbaston.

In fact, since Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum took over the England team management, Root has outscored all No 4 batters (1,127 runs in 22 innings; Smith has 959 in 22 innings) at the fastest strike rate (75, comfortably ahead of Smith’s 50.6, Babar Azam’s 59 and Kohli’s 50.84), and with a handsome conversion rate as well, amassing five hundreds and three fifties compared to Smith’s four centuries and one fifty in the same phase.

All this while not upending batting’s natural order or flow. Pre Bazball, Root scored boundaries off 6.1% of the balls faced. Now it has risen to 7.4%. Fours and sixes made up for 46% of Root’s runs before. Now it’s 49%. Break it down further and the percentage of fours in his runs has in fact diminished – from 44% to 41%. And sixes is where Root’s transformation is most dramatic — up to 7.5% from when they used to make up just 1.5% of his runs.

It almost on its own explains the spike in his attacking shots (26% to 41%) and the change in scoring areas. Root the prodigy, and later the England captain, was conventional in playing square and through midwicket. He still hits those regions, but now has also started targeting the area between third man and square leg more.

Which is why his reverse sweep/ramp now has a sense of inevitability to it, irrespective of whether spin or pace is at play. Pat Cummins has been at its receiving end. Nathan Lyon knows as well, having watched Root unleash three consecutive reverse-sweeps against him in the first innings, almost in premeditated fashion, aimed purely to prevent the off-spinner from finding his rhythm.

And that fascinates Jonny Bairstow. “The way he (Root) manipulated the strike, the tempo of going up and down, sucking up pressure to then put pressure back on the opposition, is a trait of his that a lot of people would like to have,” he had said after Root got to his hundred. The man himself underplays it though, preferring to brand his way of playing as ‘preparation for T20 cricket'. Thing is, this isn’t the same Root from last year when runs were coming alright, but the England captaincy was clearly wearing him down.

So, even if Root quitting captaincy was a necessary step towards England embracing a new culture, the transition wouldn’t have felt complete without Root the batter committing wholeheartedly to it. He could have easily not changed till England would have had their fill of him, probably sooner than later.

But Root chose otherwise, coming down the pitch to fast bowlers more often, reverse-ramping spinners and getting stumped — for the first time in his 130-match Test career — looking for quick second innings runs while on 46.

Batting, evidently, is no longer about milestones to him but productive defiance, making Root an unexpected outlier of the game.