How Joe Took Sweep Root...

The shot has been England captain’s go-to against spinners & one which has fetched him runs in the sub-continent

- Swaroop Swaminathan

In hindsight, it was in evidence in his very first Test innings at Nagpur in late 2012. Joe Root, during his critical 73 off 229 balls, used three different forms of the sweep — conventional, paddle and the reverse — against three of India’s four frontline spinners: Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha and Piyush Chawla. Even if the sweep was still a popular shot to employ in India, overseas batsmen tended to use it as a last resort. Most of them couldn’t read the spinners so they swept. Root, even then, swept because he believed.

Four years later, as part of The Big Four, Root had become the batsman the prophecies had pointed to when he was in his teens at Yokrshire. Even if that 2016 series wasn’t a kind one for England — they lost 0-4 — their No 3 was amongst the runs. His 491 runs across five Tests was second only to Virat Kohli. Among visiting batsmen, only five players have scored more in India in a series this century.