Joe Root: England's Man for All Occasions and All Conditions
Ian Bell walked back toward the Lord's Pavilion with a look on his face that blended bewilderment, anger and exasperation. New Zealand's debutant Matt Henry had just delivered him what Shane Warne would call a "peach," one that caught the top of the Englishman's off stump to make his recent batting record look like binary: 1, 0, 0, 1.
England's card didn't look much better on the opening morning of this first Test of the summer. Adam Lyth had feathered a nick to BJ Watling on seven, Alastair Cook had gloved an attempted hook shot to the same man on 16 and Gary Ballance had trudged off with just a single next to his name.
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Bell's dismissal at the hands of Henry left England at 30 for four. Lord's had been silenced—the normal, upbeat murmur that emanates from the stands missing. Andrew Strauss, watching his first Test as the director of England cricket, looked tense. The host's balcony equally so, as Moeen Ali, in at eight, rushed around the boundary line to the dressing room to return from a net session alarmingly early.
After just 13 overs, it was unravelling for England. And not just this innings or this Test—a lot more than that.
But just minutes earlier, before Bell had departed back to the pavilion, Joe Root had skipped the other way, a picture of energy. He'd made his way briskly toward the middle, simulating his drives, almost sprinting to the wicket.
Once there, he'd looked around and smiled, looking every bit 16 rather than 24. Or like a happy dog on the edge of the water at the beach, oblivious to all else.
First ball: a confident forward defence. Second ball: a pristine cover drive to the fence. Four.
Though Bell's wicket would follow, England's rescue act had started. Root, in two balls, had altered the innings' course. He'd shown how.
When Root made his Test debut against India in Nagpur in 2012, he embarked upon his maiden innings in one of the most pivotal Tests in England's modern history. After dropping the series opener in Ahmedabad, England's two emphatic victories in Mumbai and Kolkata had Cook's men on the verge of a historic triumph.
An England side hadn't won a Test series on Indian soil in 28 years. In that time, England's number of Test victories there had totalled one. A series triumph there would be a watershed moment in the English game.
But when Root arrived at the crease during his team's first innings in the final Test in Nagpur, it was all hanging precariously. When he skipped his way to the crease—just like he did at Lord's on Thursday—the visitors were 119 for four. Then, almost immediately, Kevin Pietersen fell. Five down. Little more than 100 on the board.
India had their tails up, an ominous proposition on their home soil. The pitch was dry, cracked. Paul Collingwood had said it was like the "bottom of a dried river bed." And India were playing four spinners in a five-man attack.
Less than four months on from that day in mid-December, India crushed Australia four-nil in the same conditions. Against that spin-dominated Indian attack, Michael Clarke's team didn't get close. At all.
But Root, on debut, presented with the same opponent, fought and scrapped his way to 73—the joint-highest score for the innings. He chewed up 229 balls, sapping time and life away from the hosts.
From possible implosion, England made 330.
And they went on to make history.
After Root's debut, England had quickly come to recognise the baby-faced right-hander as the archetypal Yorkshire batsman: technically correct, watchful, hands under his eyes. But he wasn't exactly thrilling crowds.
His maiden innings was that 229-ball 73. Next came a 56-ball 20. Not long afterwards in New Zealand, he battled for 176 balls for just 45, following that with a 79-ball 29 and a 114-ball 40.
The circumstances for a number of those knocks had been tricky, yes. But a fluency and a sense of adventure seemed to be lacking. His game felt very serious but not much fun.
Then, he returned to Yorkshire. To Headingley—home of the technically correct, the watchful and hands under eyes.
Against a New Zealand attack in the beginning stages of its emergence—Trent Boult was playing his 15th Test, Tim Southee his 26th—Root, on a bowler-friendly surface damp from the previous day's rain, worked his way smoothly to 66.
Then, from three Kane Williamson deliveries, it happened: skip down the wicket, flick for four; down on one knee, sweep for four; react to the field change, reverse sweep for four.
"Six Tests in and the kid was taking the mickey," ESPN Cricinfo's Mark Nicholas wrote.
Root reached his first Test hundred.
And the shackles were off.
Since Root scored that maiden Test hundred at Headingley in mid-2013, he's reached five more in the two years that have followed. One was a double, and all have been "daddy hundreds"—the way he labelled them this week.
Indeed, in the five times he's reached three figures since that first milestone, his lowest score is 149. And four of the five—the last four—have been unbeaten.
Against Sri Lanka last summer, his double hundred came in quick time on a good batting surface at Lord's (just like his 180 against Australia at the same venue a year earlier), pushing England to a colossal 575 at more than four runs per over.
Against India, his 154 at Trent Bridge was compiled alongside James Anderson in a record-breaking 10th-wicket partnership, turning a possibly massive first-innings deficit into a 39-run lead. In the same series, his rapid 149 (165 balls) at The Oval crushed the visitors in the final Test.
And when his top-order team-mates had put on a dour, uninspiring response to the West Indies' 299 in Grenada last month, Root graced his way to a fluent 182 on a difficult, two-paced wicket to set up a victory.
In every situation—setting a target, chasing the game, accelerating an innings, saving an innings—Root has triumphed. In all conditions—fast wickets, slow wickets, green wickets, spin-friendly wickets—Root has soared above the rest.
And every time, there's been an overriding quality: effervescence. There's something about Root that sparkles.
"He loves batting, and even in his most defensive mode, his mind ticks so obviously that he is eminently watchable," wrote ESPN Cricinfo's David Hopps during last summer's series against India. "You feel you can hear it ticking loudly enough to keep the entire street awake at night."
Alongside Ben Stokes, Root skipped out of the Lord's Pavilion, down the stairs and onto the turf as England and New Zealand prepared to resume play after lunch on Thursday.
A picture of energy (like always), he simulated his drives (like always), looking to continue yet another rescue operation that he himself had started.
Head down, midway through his last imitated drive, Root collided with a cameraman closely tracking the England pair's walk to the middle.
The cameraman toppled over.
For Root, his routine had been interrupted, his concentration broken. In a critical moment, the match poised delicately, a frustrated reaction would have been understandable. Natural even.
But that's just not Root's way. He helped the cameraman to his feet, lifting the heavy equipment away. Then, with almost perfect technique, he began filming himself.
In the hours that followed, he cruised to a possibly match-defining 98.
All with a smile on his face. Looking like that happy dog on the beach.
Right now, Root can do it all.
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