"If England have to win then Joe Root has to play his own brand of cricket", Geoff Boycott

Former captain Geoff Boycott believes star batsman Joe must stick to the methods that have made him a great Test player; insists Bazball is not working for England’s senior-most batsman

England have been impressive on their current tour of India, drawing first blood in the five-match series in Hyderabad and then putting up some fight before losing in Vizag. However, their most experienced batsman—Joe Root—has only 29 (in Hyderabad) to show as his best effort across four innings. Root knows what it takes to score hundreds against India, who he has been facing since 2012-13, the season in which England beat MS Dhoni’s team in India.

Root has scored as many as nine Test centuries against the Indians, two of which have been crafted on Indian soil.

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A visibly upset England batsman Joe Root (16) after being dismissed in the second Test at Visakhapatnam recently. Pics/Getty Images

If England have to get the series scoreline back in their favour, Root has to open his big scoring account as it were. Fellow Yorkshireman and former England captain Geoff Boycott is concerned. “I really do not know why our very own Joe Root can’t bat in his original style. He became Joe Root by playing his own way, not because of Bazball.

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“Joe is a classical Test match player. If England have to win then he has to play his own brand of cricket and he should try to concentrate on a big innings. No one should influence him to bat in Bazball mode and play airy shots. This is Test cricket and he should realise that,” Boycott told mid-day from Cape Town.

Geoff Boycott

Root has fallen to Jasprit Bumrah twice and once to Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin in this series. Boycott added: “Someone should tell him to play his own way, own style. Everyone should value their wicket. If they keep that in mind, then England can score big. This is the most important factor to win anywhere in the world.”
The third Test at Rajkot begins on Friday. And who knows, the century tally against India could turn to double digits there, a venue where he scored his first of the two hundreds in India.

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