Records tumbled in Mumbai as Joe Root kept England alive in the World T20. The thrilling encounter against South Africa was settled by a magnificent 83 off 44 balls by the Yorkshireman. He paced his innings perfectly to guide England to the target of 230—their highest score in T20Is. In a match dominated by batsmen, Root stood out above the rest. He played with a calmness that is almost non-existent in the shortest form of the game.
Even the average game of T20 is frenetic. When 160 plays 160, there is bound to be some chaotic batting. So when 230 plays 230, the level of hitting on display is explosive. Yet amidst the pyrotechnics, Root played an innings of the utmost serenity. He seemed immune to the pressure of a mammoth total, even though his team were playing for their lives in the tournament. He was other-worldly.
Root’s 44 balls faced only yielded four dot balls. Of those, the second was a leg bye and the fourth was his wicket. To put that into perspective, Chris Gayle’s bludgeoning 48-ball effort on Wednesday contained 18 dots. Root’s ability to turn good balls into runs was on full display, as he rotated the strike supremely in the early part of his knock. His trademark scurrying between the wickets boosted the team too. The innings flowed freely as Root moved through the gears at the precise moment when England most needed him.
That moment came after Eoin Morgan’s dismissal midway through the tenth over. Having been buoyed by a brilliant start by Jason Roy and Alex Hales, England had slipped below the original 11.5 asking rate for the first time with the captain’s wicket. Up until that point Root had knocked the ball around for 12 off 11. Sensing that this was a crunch point in the game, he hit his next two balls for six.
First, he muscled JP Duminy over the midwicket boundary. Next he uppercutted Chris Morris over backward point. Before that the last boundary had been at the start of the sixth over. England were back on track with their place in the World T20 on the line. Only once did the required run rate exceed 11 after Root’s dual sixes.
His passed fifty in remarkable style—a reverse ramp-sweep over third man—but even this garish invention had a subtle touch of class about it. Root made it look almost trivial. The chase was completely under his control from then. He was visibly disappointed to be dismissed at the start of the 19th, but in truth, the game was over by then. England’s number four had taken his team to an improbable victory and proved his doubters wrong.
Amazingly, there had been doubters. For all his Test match experience, he has only played 45 career T20 games, including domestic games. Not a great deal in an era of plentiful short-form fixtures. Some thought Root’s touch game would not translate well to the power hitting of T20 cricket. But he has proven that batting smartly and hitting boundaries at the right times can be more valuable than hours in the weights room.
The 25 year-old’s plaudits have rained in, with Nasser Hussain even proposing that he is England’s best batsman ever across formats. He is still a little way off catching Kevin Pietersen to that crown, but the mere fact that Root is even in the discussion while this young is a testament to his talent.
For all their star batsman’s heroics, England are still a deeply flawed T20 team. The absence of Steven Finn through injury has severely weakened an already shaky seam bowling attack. For that reason, it’s difficult to see them winning the World T20, unless spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid can conjure some magic on the dry Indian pitches. If the bowling can match the dazzling batting England may yet have a chance, but that seems unlikely. It’s difficult, though not impossible, to recover from conceding 229 in 20 overs.
Joe Root will be central to England’s World T20 campaign. His innings against South Africa demonstrated all of his best qualities at once. He may not be England’s greatest ever batsman yet, but he’s surely not far off. Give him five years.
