Joe Root breaks a surprise Bazball record with perfect reply to his critics

4th Test, Day 1: England 302-7 (Root 106*, Foakes 47 | Deep 3-70)

After a week when his ill-fated reverse ramp in Rajkot was analysed to within an inch of its life, perhaps it was inevitable that Joe Root would rescue England’s hopes here in Ranchi with the slowest century so far of the Bazball era.

Much of the past two years under coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes has been a personal duel between the Bazballers about who can be the first to beat Gilbert Jessop’s 76-ball record for the fastest England century. It’s yet to fall.

However, on a day when the tourists’ series hopes were at risk of collapsing during a chaotic first morning of this fourth Test, Root showed the value of old-school orthodoxy as he went back to basics to notch up the 31^st Test century of his career and third in India.

In all it took him 219 balls, bringing up the landmark with a glorious shot off debutant Akash Deep late in the final session, and was an effort another famous Yorkshireman in Geoffrey Boycott would have been proud of.

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This was Root’s first century since his unbeaten 118 in last summer’s opening Ashes Test at Edgbaston, a match remembered for – among other things – Root playing his reverse ramp shot to the first ball on day three when facing up to Aussie captain Pat Cummins.

It’s a shot that has well worked for Root, who in the past has admitted he has been unsure of his role in this Bazball batting line-up.

It’s also the shot that launched a 1,000 debates after the Rajkot rout, Root’s dismissal in England’s first innings sparking a collapse that paved the way for a crushing 434-run defeat that put them 2-1 down in the series with two to play.

Both McCullum and Stokes insisted they were in no position to question the decision making of a player who has almost 12,000 Test runs under his belt.

Root himself, though, obviously felt it was not worth the risk on day one in Ranchi given England have to win here to keep alive the dream of setting up a thrilling series decider in Dharamshala the week after next.

It means the runs that flowed from his bat were all the more valuable, England’s best player of spin locking away all of his high-risk shots and digging in to ensure his team get close to a total that keeps them alive in the contest. Nobody is sure just yet what that might be given a pitch that reacted erratically to the new ball in the morning calmed down as the day wore on.

Yet after slipping to 112 for five by lunch, the tourists will take ending this first day on 302 for seven after winning a crucial toss and deciding to bat first.

England were 47 for two and reeling in the middle of a captivating spell of fast bowling from Deep when Root walked to the crease. He was rapped on the pads first ball by India’s debutant, too, as the hosts wasted a review on an optimistic lbw shout.

From that point onwards, though, Root didn’t look back.

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England’s run rate was still 4.68 during a crazy first session that saw India review on five occasions – two successful, two wrong and one missing out on an umpire’s call.

But it dropped to 2.33 during a middle session that saw Root and Ben Foakes, a player who readily admits he is “not Bazball”, add 86 valuable runs in 35.6 overs.

By tea, Root had compiled the fourth-slowest half-century of the Bazball era, the landmark coming in 108 balls. By day’s end he was out on his own for the slowest hundred, beating Foakes’ 209-ball effort against South Africa at Old Trafford in 2022.

This was the kind of return to old-school Test cricket many had been demanding after the hammering in Rajkot.

Yet to characterise this as England ditching Bazball is to misunderstand the very concept. One of its key tenets is soaking up pressure at the right time before putting it back on opponents. England did both here without getting out of second gear, the slow grind of a wicketless afternoon session definitely turning up the heat on the hosts.

It’s still Bazball, Jim. Just not as we know it.