IND vs ENG | Joe Root abandons Bazball to marshall flailing England on tricky Ranchi surface on Day 1

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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After enduring severe backlash for his lean returns so far, Joe Root bounced back brilliantly on a difficult track in Ranchi to score a flawless ton. His 113-run partnership with Ben Foakes proved to be pivotal in taking England past 300, despite Akash Deep's opening spell earning him three scalps.

‌Brief score: ENG 302/7 (Joe Root 107*, Ben Foakes 47; Akash Deep 17-0-70-3) 

The first signs of uneven bounce on the Ranchi deck appeared on just the third ball of the game when a Mohammed Siraj length ball spat up at Zak Crawley's throat. However, the opener remained unfettered against the quick to smash three boundaries on the trot followed by a maximum in the seventh over to give England another flying start. It took debutant Akash Deep's unerring line on the fourth stump channel to break the 47-run opening stand by having Ben Duckett caught behind in the 10th over, followed by trapping Ollie Pope LBW with a bold review two balls later given the batter was a good three meters down the track. The Bengal pacer capped off a maiden spell in Test cricket by kissing Zak Crawley's off stump for 42 two overs later, replicating the dream delivery that had sent his off-stump cartwheeling earlier in the day albeit on a no-ball.

Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow attempted to steady the ship thereon with the latter bringing out a range of expansive shots to lace his 38 with four boundaries and a maximum before ultimately missing a sweep shot to hand Ravichandran Ashwin his first scalp of the game. His partner-in-crime Ravindra Jadeja took the invitation to open his own account with a shooter to Ben Stokes and left the visitors reeling at 112/5 at Lunch. 

Realizing that England's fate hung by a balance, Root and Ben Foakes abandoned all aggressive intent to accumulate just 86 runs in 37 overs in the second session, battling the odd low bounce and turn with aplomb in what became the slowest half-century partnership of the Bazball era. The latter eventually showed intent immediately after the break by dispatching Ashwin for 14 runs in three balls but ended up flicking a reverse-swinging Siraj delivery straight to short midwicket to end the 113-run stand. Alex Hartley's brief cameo thereafter was ended by Siraj perfectly finding a crack on the off-stump line but Ollie Robinson showed better determination to allow Root to bring up the slowest century of any England batter since Ben Stokes became captain. The duo ended unbeaten on 31 and 106 respectively with the partnership reading 57 at Stumps, thereby placing England in the driver's seat heading into Day 2.

Joe Root's day!

He can bat bruh!

What a day!

England recovered a lot!

Hahaha!

That's how you do it!

That's like 'Zero to Hero'

Without Bumrah?

Good Test cricket this is!

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