Root regains 'belief' against 'very good' Indian attack, admits top order batting as concern

England were having 157 runs to defend on the final day of the Nottingham Test and skipper Joe Root sounded confident of his side’s chances, similar to his counterpart Virat Kohli’s bullishness about his team’s chances.

They have taken away India’s leading run-scorer from the first innings in KL Rahul late on the fourth day, but India’s batting order accompanied by the quality of England place attack had set up for a cracking finish of the game. 

The weather god however had other ideas, and once again, like Kohli, Root rued a “robbed” opportunity for both sides of what could have been an “entertaining” final day.

Root was asked by Michael Atherton with the reference of Kohli’s statement about his team’s chances of winning the game, and the Man of the Match Root said that England believed they could “nine opportunities” if weather permitted.

"It was a great Test match, the weather's robbed us of what would have been an entertaining final day. Even 40 overs could have given us something exciting. Hopefully, we can take some of the good stuff we've done this week into the rest of the series,” Root said in the post-match presentation ceremony.

“Felt like there were going to be nine opportunities, it was just about making the game go long enough and make sure we had our catchers in. It's a shame the weather sort of won today.”

However confident Root sounded after the game ended in a draw, he would be the first one to accept to himself that India had England under the pump and it took a masterful innings from him to put them in a position of strength on the fourth day. He has been shouldering the burden of his teammates’ failure and invariably England have struggled to put up string fight without his contribution in the recent past.

England top order has become Achilles heel for them over the last few Test series and Root openly admitted the issues at the top of the order. However, he ruled out any fresh infusion to the side and lamented the scheduling issues due to Covid-19 behind the inability to bring more experienced players in the mix. He defended the young players for not being able to put up strong performance but asserted that his teammates have not been using lack of experience as any sort of “excuse.”

“There's certain areas we want to keep working on, we obviously want to score more runs at the top of the order, and taking the chances we create, but Test cricket is challenging. We need to keep working on our game, and also keep the fun element in there,” he added.

“We're going to have to deal with as long as we have this schedule. It helps to have experience. It's a little harder for the younger guys, but none of us in the dressing room are using it as an excuse.”

It was Joe Root who brought England back in the game after they had conceded a lead of 95 runs in the first innings which could well have been a match-deciding one. He batted with superb fluency and played shots with great flair and freedom to put India on the backfoot in the afternoon session on a penultimate day.

Looking back to the century, he outlined the “enjoyment” and “belief” he gathered after combatting a “very good” Indian seam attack that kept on asking questions of him and his teammates. He said that the aggressive approach he had adopted against the pacers was a thoughtful plan to shift the pressure back on the tourists.

“There was a lot of enjoyment in how I batted, and a little bit of belief there too. India have a very good seam attack, and they tested our defences for long periods of time, and from my point of view it was about putting the pressure back on them,” Root signed off.

The hosts have some decisions to take regarding their brittle top order come the second Test match at Lord’s starting on August 12, and all the top three batsmen such as Rory Burns, Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley will be walking on thin ice if they survive to bat the Home of Cricket.