Joe Root
Joe Root Credits: Twitter

Former England captains Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain have stated that Joe Root will face criticism if he fails to score big with his aggressive playing style in Tests.

The right-handed batsman is facing the heat for the way he got out in the second innings of the recently-concluded second Test against India in Vishakhapatnam. The former England captain decided to go all out right from the word go as his team was chasing an improbable total of 399 runs.

He hit two fours and a six in no time to race away to 16 runs off just 9 balls. However, he ended up losing his wicket on the next ball while trying to play another big shot. Joe Root miscued a slog off Ravichandran Ashwin’s delivery and departed for 16.

The latest failure means the England star is yet to cross the 30-run mark in the ongoing series. In four innings so far, he has registered scores 29, 2, 5 and 16. England went on to lose the second Test by 106 runs. Chasing 399, the visitors were bowled out for 292 runs.

Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton on Joe Root’s batting approach:

Speaking on Sky Sports, Nasser Hussain pointed out that while Joe Root’s average has improved ever since he changed his batting style since ‘Bazball’ era began, he needs to be cautious. He stated that the star batsman does not need to play like that to score big runs in Tests.

“I think we should go on to Joe Root and the shot he played in the second innings, because already the narrative is he doesn’t need to play like that. Now, I do buy that a little bit actually. When you see him being so frenetic, we don’t know whether it was his finger injury or whatever,” said Hussain.

“He did look frenetic. He doesn’t need to be. He’s one of England’s if not England’s greatest ever batter. He’d be one of the top three and he gets runs by just accumulating. “

“The narrative is, does he need to play like that to be in this team? Is it Bazball that’s bringing him down. And I’ve looked at the stat. Before Bazball, he was averaging 49. Since Bazball, he is averaging 53. So, it’s actually done his game some good,” added Hussain before asking Atherton for his views on Root’s batting style.

“Well, it was an unusual innings,” said Atherton before saying that England’s fate in the series will depend a lot on how Root performs.

“One thing that I do know is that if England are gonna do well in this series or win this series, Joe Root needs to have a good series. In the end, you can only judge on the outcome, on the results. And if he keeps getting out as he does today and not getting any runs, then I think the criticism lands fairly,” he added.