Joe Root’s 1,708 runs were the highlight of a dismal year for England in Test cricket with the captain in supreme form as he made an astonishing six centuries, so why was he raised from No. 4 to No. 3 in the series batting order? against the West Indies in March?
Joe Root has excelled batting at No. 4 for England, but is moving up a spot for the Test series against the West Indies.
England’s red ball restart has begun.
Ashley Giles, Chris Silverwood and Graham Thorpe were relieved of their duties and surprisingly so were James Anderson and Stuart Broad, at least for the upcoming Caribbean tour.
But amidst the discussion about the rights and wrongs of leaving 1,177 Test wickets behind, a seemingly small but quite significant change in the way England plans to take on the West Indies has gone unnoticed.
Joe Root may have held on to the captaincy, but he has given up his favored spot at No. 4 in the batting order and will instead enter the first drop, a decision that interim managing director Sir Andrew Strauss, was instigated by the boss.
“The first thing he [Root] said on the pick that he was very interested in hitting three in the future,” Strauss said. Sky sports news.
“That came from him; that was his request. And I think everyone agrees that’s probably a healthy thing for the England cricket team at the moment.”
The difference between three and four may not sound like much, but it is substantial enough that the debate over which of the two positions Root should occupy has been simmering, occasionally coming to a boil, for five or six years.
Well, he had been until the England captain seemed to have put him to bed once and for all with his extraordinary 2021. Batting in four, he scored 1,708 runs at 56.85 with six hundred.
In a dismal year for England, it was a rare positive, so the decision, apparently his, to try to fix the one component of the batting line-up that wasn’t broken is odd.
“It’s interesting because a couple of years ago I asked for that,” said former England captain Nasser Hussain. sky sports.
“Better judges than me, Ian Chappell and Ricky Ponting, in Australia your best batsmen hit all three and you go in before the crisis. You try to stop that crisis. Joe Root was constantly going into a crisis at 20-2, I would like him to go in to stop the crisis at 15-1.
“But the problem is that Root has been prolific hitting in fours. The problem in Australia wasn’t Anderson and Broad, and it wasn’t Root in fours, and those are the two main changes for the next tour that’s coming up.”
“They wouldn’t even make my list, they’ve been the two success stories of English cricket!”
It seems even more peculiar when you look at the statistics.
In 106 innings in the No. 4, Root has 5,179 runs at 51.27 14 hundredths and 27 fifties. With half strokes at No. 3, that drops to 1,933 runs at 38.66 and just two hundred, though one of those is his career high 254 and 14 half-centuries.
That’s a big difference: His performance drops nearly 25 percent when he steps up to three, and that’s a lot of runs to sacrifice for a team notoriously short of them.
All of which begs the question: why do it?
23-2, 17-2, 18-2, 29-2, 7-2, 13-2, 12-2, 11-2, 6-2, 1-2. That’s just a selection of England’s starts with the bat in the last 12 months and surely the main reason for promoting Root, or rather, Root chooses to promote himself.
If he’s exposed to the new ball anyway and is scoring loads of runs regardless, why not get him in a little earlier and, as Nasser said, “stop that meltdown” before it happens?
The idea that hitting from four gives the captain more rest, more even mentally than physically, having had to be on all the time while the team is on the field, has merit and on occasions where the top three can come England got off to a good start, it happens from time to time, that time with your feet up is clearly valuable.
However, given how often Root finds himself in the crease within half an hour of the start of innings, is it more valuable than having the most technically proficient hitter in the middle when it’s hardest to hit? It would seem not.
The obvious downside to having your best batsman around longer, even if it’s just a couple more overs, when the ball is doing so much is that it’s more likely to go out, as evidenced by not only Root’s respective averages, but also but also because of the fact that he has as many ducks (four) hitting three as four, in half innings at top position.
However, England are counting on a player of Root’s caliber also being able to put pressure on bowlers again and get past the wicket early to set up innings or, if the first few matches have gone well, bounce back quickly. and continue the good start, either way, making life a little easier for those who come after him.
