India vs England | ‘Root had a bloody fine record playing normally’: Ian Chappel lambasts ENG batter and Bazball

Legendary Australian cricketer Ian Chappell urged England’s Joe Root to play his natural game instead of his Bazball approach.

“Root had a bloody fine record playing normally, and he was a quick scorer playing normally. I don’t see why he’s trying to change things drastically, and I’ve never believed you should play premeditated shots,” Chappell told Wide World of Sports.

Root, who has played over 11,000 Tests, have been lambasted for his poor choice of shots in the series against India, with his dismissal in the first innings of the 3rd Test in particular coming under scrutiny.

In that instant, he tried to reverse sweep Jasprit Bumrah and ended up edging to the slips which ended up triggering a collapse as the visitors were bowled out for 319. The Bazballers would ultimately lose the match by 434 runs, which turned out to be India’s highest ever Test win in terms of runs.

“You can’t always do it — it’s got to be according to the conditions and also who’s bowling. Some bowlers you can score off a lot quicker than others, but when a really good bowler is bowling a good spell, you’ve got to be prepared to try and battle it out and think to yourself ‘Well, when he goes off, it’ll get a bit easier. You’re always trying to score runs — that’s got to be your prime aim. But, you’ve also got to realise in some conditions, against some bowlers you can score quicker than others,” Chappell said.

Even England captain Ben Stokes admitted that Root’s first-innings dismissal against Bumrah was a pivotal moment in the match.

“Yeah, because he got out to it, definitely was a turning point. Joe Root’s scored nearly 12,000 runs, I think we can leave the decision-making and ‘why’ with Joe. I can understand why there would be frustration around that because of how good a player Joe is,” Stokes said.

“Jasprit Bumrah has got him out a couple of times this tour early on. And I thought Joe was looking really, really good at the crease, and he sensed that as a time to put something different back onto Jasprit and make him maybe think about something. Because what that shot does for Joe is it makes fields change, makes bowlers mindset change towards him. He got out to it, and it’s not a shot you necessarily see Test match players playing. But look, who am I to question a guy who has 30 Test match hundreds, nearly 12,000 Test match runs. I think he knows what he’s doing,” Stokes added.

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