Indian Women’s Cricket Team’s captain Mithali Raj decided to post a photo on Instagram, and mischievously praise England’s star batsman Joe Root. Can you guess the reason? It’s quite humorous; Root was praised for posing like Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.
Raj posted an image of Root and heaped praised on him for his exquisite effort to match the iconic pose of Shah Rukh, which he performed in his blockbuster film Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham.
Bollywood has been flying abroad successfully for almost two decades. It is well-known that Shah Rukh Khan is more popular in some foreign regions than even Tom Cruise. What is new, though, is the fact that, newer foreign markets are opening up for Hindi cinema. So it’s not a big surprise if a young England cricketer wants to celebrate with an SRK style!
Root is currently arguably one of the best batsmen around. He is ranked No.4 in Tests and T20Is, and No.10 in One Day Internationals. The 25-year-old has an outstanding career average of almost 53 in Tests, 44 in ODIs and 40 in T20Is.
The England youngster is at present busy playing for England against Sri Lanka. England beat the sub-continent giants 2-0 in the Test series earlier. Root was a bit out of form as he scored a total of only 87 runs in four innings, with his best score being 80. But his lack of runs did not hamper his England’s domination, as they nearly missed out on a whitewash.
Former England captain Nasser Hussein even suggested while it had been “a series to forget” for Root, even the world’s best players are not adapted to the occasional lean spell.
“I can’t believe what a quiet series he’s had, other than scoring 80 in Durham, and he’ll be very disappointed.”
Root has been playing a key role in this England squad in all the three formats over the past two years. He was even the leading run-scorer for his side in the ICC T20 World Cup 2016, where England finished as the finalists. His 249 runs were the third highest in the competition, behind Tamim Iqbal and Virat Kohli.
However, Root thinks he should have notched 18 Test hundreds by now and he needs to improve his conversion of the fifties into centuries as soon as possible
The Englishman has already scored nine Test centuries and averages 54.46, but he has been dismissed 13 times for scores between 71 and 98.
England will now play five ODIs and a T20I against Sri Lanka before Pakistan tours them for another four Tests, five ODIs, and a T20I. Root and his team have a great opportunity to reach the 2nd spot in ICC Test rankings if they win three Tests against Pakistan.