England have let a brilliant position slip and are now scrapping for their lives. Joe Root played the worst shot of his career as his nightmare tour continues.
The reverse ramp has brought him success and we accept England play a certain way now and sometimes it does not come off.
But it is game management they sometimes lose amidst the white-line fever. There was no need to play the shot when he did. England had batted serenely for the first 20 minutes and another four or five overs and India’s heads would have dropped with them reeling from the overnight loss of Ravi Ashwin.
But Root picked out second slip with his reverse and handed Jasprit Bumrah and India an opening. Jonny Bairstow’s eighth duck against India was not his fault, a great ball deceived him early on and suddenly England were in deep trouble when India were there for the taking this morning.
Whereas Ben Duckett has been liberated by Bazball, Root is trying too hard to be someone he is not and has looked out of sync for some time. This was an attempt to stamp some authority on the game with a shot that he had pulled off successfully with 21 out of 22 attempts. But against Bumrah and all his variations and reverse swing, it is not a percentage shot and England’s collapse this morning felt a little like the Australia Test at Lord’s when they lost their minds against the short ball moments after Nathan Lyon had hobbled off.
Duckett lobbed a catch off a ball so wide from Yadav he could barely reach it. It was Duckett’s first ball after drinks, perhaps he was not switched on, but it was another self inflicted blow. It should not overshadow what was a great innings though, his 153 off 151 balls an audacious counter attack born from the Bazball mindset.
It is now down to Ben Stokes and Bem Foakes to reduce the first innings deficit to manageable proportions but it is going to be very difficult. Yadav is bowling superbly with good pace, flight and turn on a pitch that is spinning more than at any stage during the game.
