England's Joe Root did well to ignore fanfare and focus on the feast

MARTIN SAMUEL: England captain Joe Root did well to ignore the fanfare over reaching 100 Tests and focus on the feast… the party had already started before he reached the crease but maybe now the fun can begin

• There was an inescapable party atmosphere over Joe Root reaching 100 Tests 
• He did brilliantly to keep his mind on batting given the fanfare before the match 
• The fun may just be beginning for the skipper as he begins the second day on 128

A great club, Joe Root called it, as he marked his place among the 15 Englishmen who had made it to 100 Tests. On Friday, in the historic Chepauk Stadium, Chennai, he joined another.

The centurion centurions. Players who have made 100 on the occasion of their 100th Test appearance. That’s an even more exclusive group.

Colin Cowdrey and Alec Stewart are the other English members; Inzamam-ul-Haq the highest scorer, with 184 against India in Bengaluru.

Joe Root scored a century against India on the milestone occasion of his 100th Test outing

Ricky Ponting is the only batsman to record centuries back to back, 120 in his first innings and 143 not out in the second against South Africa in Sydney, 2006. 

As for the rest of the membership, it reads like a who’s who of the game’s greatest batsmen: Javed Miandad, Gordon Greenidge, Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla.

And now, No 9 on the list, Root. Rising above the fanfare and the plaudits, clearing his mind to play one of his finest and most valuable innings, with the eyes of the world upon him.

It must be difficult to think straight, to try to focus on work, when your friends insist on throwing a big party. Yet somehow Root kept it together in the hours leading up to this Test.

On Thursday night, in a private room at the Leela Palace hotel on Chennai’s seafront, he was shown a series of video messages from the great, the good and Neil Warnock. 

(Joking. Although Root is a Sheffield United fan, so Warnock did send his personal congratulations, along with Chris Wilder, Billy Sharp and the current squad at Bramall Lane.)

Root’s grandfather Don was on the reel, along with his parents, wife, kids, the greatest English cricketers from Broad and Anderson through Botham and Boycott, and some of the country’s finest sportsmen and women.

Harry Kane, Gary Lineker, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Lee Westwood, all heaped praise on England’s captain. ‘The greatest England batsman I have ever seen,’ gushed Sir Alastair Cook.

Before the match there was an inescapable fanfare over his reaching a ton of Test matches

He did fantastically well to set aside the party atmosphere and focus completely on his batting

After which, Root’s vice-captain, and friend, Ben Stokes gave a speech. He has known Root since they were Under 13s representing Cumbria and Yorkshire in a match at Sedbergh School.

In print this week, Stokes remembered a puny presence at the crease, but with a technique in advance of his peers, guiding shots exquisitely through gaps in the field rather than vainly trying to bludgeon the ball to the boundary.

Yet his words behind closed doors were deeply personal. Stokes spoke of the support Root gave him during his exile from the England team. It was a very emotional moment, according to witnesses.

‘If people wonder why I’d run through a brick wall for him, it is because of this,’ Stokes concluded. Root replied he would hold those words dear forever.

On to the ground the next day, and more ceremony. A pre-match presentation of a silver Test cap, the preserve of legends according to the ECB. Is this really the best preparation for a feat of concentration, the idea that everyone you know, love or admire is gathered, watching your big day?

Root admitted he could not remember the side he named at the toss as he was so emotional

No wonder, interviewed after the toss, Root could barely recall his named XI. ‘I was a little bit emotional,’ he admitted. ‘I couldn’t even remember our team. Thankfully when I got out there I knew it was business as normal and I had a job to do.’

Indeed. By rights, when he made it to the crease in late morning, at a point when England were under excruciating pressure, Root should have been a bag of nerves. That he was not says much about the state of his game, and his mind, right now. He is in a good place, arguably his best place.

Certainly he has been restored to a position among the finest batsmen in the world — the fabled Fab Four. Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Root. 

Except it wasn’t so long ago that Root’s status was doubted. It wasn’t so much he was Ringo, more that he was becoming Pete Best. Some were even saying Pakistan’s Babar Azam should take his place. 

No more. Discussions about Root no longer focus on a struggle to convert decent scores into match-winning milestones, the 50 to 100 conundrum. He has now hit three figures in seven of his last 15 half-century innings, and his last three scores have been over 100, allowing the conversation to evolve. 

Among batsmen who have hit 10 or more 50-plus scores since September 2018, none has a better conversion rate than Root. So now we can concentrate on his more positive statistics.

The 30-year-old’s Test average stood at 50.16 after day one and he could continue cashing in

His Test average, which after day one stood at 50.16, is superior to any batsman in England’s top-10 run scorers. It is also the highest of the 15 English Test centurions. Equally, what if Root had played half his cricket in the batting conditions that benefit Kohli?

He actually has a superior record to India’s captain on the road — and Williamson, too. Root and Cook are the only Englishmen to run up three consecutive Test centuries in Asia since Ken Barrington in 1961.

Root certainly turned the play in England’s favour on Friday, arriving when a collapse threatened. Rory Burns had gone to the most infuriating stroke in Test cricket — the poorly played reverse sweep at precisely the wrong moment.

Dan Lawrence, batting at three in a first-class match for the first time since 2017, was out for a duck after five balls. England, 63-0, were now 63-2 with lunch approaching. Enter Root. 

And almost exit, just as quickly, after a horribly inappropriate quick single. It was worth it, though, to see the real reason Indian cricket has been so resistant to the use of technology. What a carry-on, for the third umpire.

First, he received footage where the fielder obscured the stumps. Then a view showing the stumps being broken but no evidence of a batsman, or even a crease. 

Third time lucky and batsman, fielder, stumps and crease could all be compared, at which point it was decided that Root was comfortably home, a conclusion that could have been reached with the naked eye. 

The nerves now out of his system, Root set about playing the type of innings that turns Test matches on the Subcontinent.

Conservative at first, settling in, and then expressive and confident at stage three, including a perfect reverse sweep off Ravichandran Ashwin that must have made Burns wince as much as smile.

Credit, too, to Chris Silverwood, England’s coach. He has reverted to a more conventional approach in Tests, building the foundation of a decent first innings score, and that suits his captain.

Root looked every inch England’s rock as he headed off for a good night’s rest. The party’s over, but maybe the fun’s just begun. 

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