RANCHI: It was just the third ball of the day. Mohammed Siraj, running in, pitched a back of a length delivery. What happened after, made everyone sit up and take notice. The ball kicked off and bounced up to Zak Crawley's neck. As he awkwardly defended the delivery, it brought up the conversation of the Ranchi surface to front and centre.
From the looks of it, there seemed to be seam movement early on, with variable bounce from at least one end. Sensing that he is not going to survive long defending, Crawley, who had already survived a clean bowled off a no ball from Akash Deep, tried to hit Siraj out of the attack. Two flicks to the ropes were followed by a tonk over wide long-on. 37/0 in seven overs — England and Bazball up and running. At least everyone thought so until Akash Deep ran through the visiting top-order, reducing England to 57 for three in 12 overs.
The onus was now on two senior batters who were not amongst runs — Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. While the latter took to hit or defend — trying to smash his way into form — Root stuck to the basics. He played with a straight bat, left, defended and worked the ball around despite the drift and the bounce — or the lack of it at times. Bairstow took on Siraj, R Ashwin, and Ravindra Jadeja and it seemed like England were back on track, scoring at five runs an over. That is when Ashwin trapped Bairstow and all hell broke loose. Jadeja snuck one in - it kept so low that Ben Stokes did not even wait for the spinner to appeal and started walking back as soon as the ball hit the pads.
Placed at 112/5 in the first session, it is fair to say the visitors were staring at a potential collapse. But England responded in a strong manner in the following session. Root, joined by Ben Foakes, was batting on 16 from 41 at the start of the post-lunch session. With Jadeja and Ashwin operating from both ends, the duo took caution and played the situation — something many had asked of them in Rajkot. Having assessed that the pitch is tricky, Root went back to his routine. A nudge here and a punch there to keep the scoreboard moving while cautiously driving when the ball was pitched up.
As the session wore on, the surface eased out a little as they brought out the dabs and used their feet to find gaps against spinners. When they walked back for tea, Foakes and Root had added 86 runs in the session without any trouble while the latter had also got to his half century.
They stuck to the plan in the third session as well — started off safely before Foakes went after Ashwin. The wicketkeeper-batter hit a six and two fours in the over and just when it seemed like he too would cross the 50-run mark, he fell to Siraj’s reverse swing. A dismissal very similar to the one in first innings of Rajkot, but this time he was caught at midwicket rather than mid-on. Siraj continued to reverse the ball as he removed Hartley, and it seemed like India might bat a few overs.
However, Root persisted, with the support of Ollie Robinson, and as he hit a boundary little wide of mid-off on his 219th delivery, Stokes screamed from the dressing room. The three figure mark came as a relief rather than ecstasy as Root raised his arms to acknowledge the applause for what is his 31st Test century — second-most among active Test players behind Kane Williamson (32) and Steve Smith (32).
It was an innings testament to Root's skill and temperament. He understood the demands of the situation and surface, adapted accordingly to play a marathon innings that featured just nine boundaries - all of which came between extra cover and fine-leg, showing the control he expedited through the innings. He ran 49 ones and 11 twos, and finished the day on 106 from 226, helping England share honours (302/7).
While the argument revolved around whether Root had to ditch Bazball to get runs, Crawley gave his two cents on Root's innings: "I have never questioned Joe on anything. Except for asking him for advice about my batting. I reckon if the pitch had been truer, he would have played the shots. I think it was the variable bounce which stopped him from playing the scoops and paddles. In Dharamsala, if they give a flatter wicket, I would fully expect him to reverse ramp one. That is Joe. He is very present when he bats. He doesn’t overthink too much."
Whether he reverse ramps in Dharamsala or not is for later, as of Friday in Ranchi, England would probably be happy that he didn't.
