Joe Root has been the backbone of the England cricket team in the longest format of the game for quite some time. He has time and again, delivered the goods with perfection and has also previously been the captain of the team.
Despite not clicking in the 1st Test between India and England at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad in the first innings, Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope were playing the reverse sweep shot as a counter-measure to the immensely talented and skilful Indian spinners in the form of Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Other English batters in the form of Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope were employing the reverse sweep and it paid off rich dividends to the England cricket team. Joe Root too spoke about the reverse sweep and said that one needs to be confident that it would materialise into a good shot.
“It can be if you can play it well. When it’s hardest is when some spin, some don’t. When it’s consistent spin you can work out when to take it on, and which balls from which line you can take a risk on,” said Joe Root as quoted by ESPNCricInfo.
“The most important thing is you don’t think you are going to miss at all. Have that mindset of committing to the shot and nailing it for four or one, or whatever. Pope did it exceptionally well. It took until 110 to make a small error when he got dropped. There were a couple of balls that ripped past his outside edge but you expect that; it’s part and parcel, almost like in England when it’s swinging and seaming around, and you almost give yourself a pat on the back because you’ve not chased it. It’s exactly the same here. It was a really special knock,” added Joe Root.
Ollie Pope scored a larger-than-life innings in Hyderabad
At a time when India were all over England and there was a massive deficit of runs in the 2nd innings, Ollie Pope displayed his A-game and made England get to a comfortable position. England were trailing by 191 runs at the beginning of their 2nd innings and eventually ended at 420 runs.
Ollie Pope scored 196 runs in 278 balls and his innings was peppered with 21 fours and he had a strike-rate of 70.50.
India eventually failed to chase down the total and were skittled out for 202 runs, thereby losing the 1st Test match in Hyderabad by a slender margin of 26 runs.
Tom Hartley spun a web and bamboozled the Indian batters in the 2nd innings, picking up 7 wickets. He had taken 2 wickets in the 1st innings and ended the game with 9 wickets to his account.
Also read: IND vs ENG Test: Where Is Ishan Kishan? Experts & Cricket Fans Take A Dig On BCCI
