England coach Trevor Bayliss compared Joe Root with Sri Lanka star Kumar Sangakkara. He said Root is playing like Kumar Sangakkara at number three position during the ongoing Test series against Pakistan. Bayliss also said Sangakkara was one of the best number three batsmen he has seen.
Root has returned to the number three position. The Yorkshireman made 325 runs — almost the margin of a 330-run victory — as England levelled the four-match series at 1-1 with an emphatic win in the second Test at Old Trafford.
Bayliss worked with Sangakkara during his time as Sri Lanka coach, whose stellar career saw the left-hander score more than 12,000 Test runs. “Definitely, he’s probably very close right now. He’s as good as any of those, I think — and thankfully for England’s sake, he’s pretty much at the start of his career,” Bayliss said.
The 25-year-old Root could have at least another 10 years as an international cricketer and Australian coach Bayliss has no doubt he is the right man to bat at the pivotal number 3 position.
“He’s hard to tie down- you bowl good balls to him, but he is still able to rotate the strike. He doesn’t face a lot of dot balls. He’s difficult to get out and he puts the bad ball away- fairly simple stuff,” he said.
“Now that he’s batting at number three, if we can get off to a good start, it allows those players who are maybe less experienced a little bit more latitude. They can come in at two or three (wickets down) for a lot of runs, rather than three or four for not many. It allows them the freedom to go out and play their games,” Bayliss added.