Published By: Saksham Mishra

Joe Root's purple patch

Joe Root has taken his game to a different level altogether from 2021 onwards.

Focus on red ball

It is a blessing in disguise that Joe Root does not play T20 International cricket for England. He thus gets a lot of downtime which is exactly what is ailing the likes of ViratKohli, Kane Williamson and Steven Smith who have not been able to work on their game and are carrying a lot of mental baggage.

Root has that advantage and he has made the most of it, piling on 2192 runs from just 21 test matches from 2021 onwards at an average of 56.28 in this period and has easily left the likes of ViratKohli, Steven Smith and Kane Williamson behind.

Prolific to begin with

In fact, Root was prolific in the first 5-6 years of his test career having made his debut against India at Nagpur. In his first 64 test matches, Joe Root made over 5500 runs at a great average with 13 centuries and 35 half centuries and earmarked for greatness.

However, his career slowed down considerably in 2018, 2019 and 2020 as he managed just 2263 runs from 33 matches at an average of under 40.

What was strange was that he was getting good starts but wasn't able to convert that. It was reflected in the fact that he scored several fifties but was able to convert only four of them into centuries.

Making up for lost time

Come 2021 and Joe Root is a completely different batter. He has worked on a few things during the COVID-19 lockdown and has come out as a totally different player.

Root is currently the 12th highest run scorer in world cricket and the second highest among English batters with 10194 runs from 119 test matches at an average of 49.97 with 27 centuries, 53 half centuries and the best of 254.

It is nothing short of a miracle that despite having the responsibility of captaincy on his shoulders and England managing to win just one match across a chunk of 17 test matches, players getting injured left right and centre and the COVID-19 bio bubble to take into account as well, Root did not allow it to affect his batting and kept piling on the runs.