As England licked their wounds after being thrashed 4-0 in the Tests by India in the winter of 2016-17, there was one man who came out unscathed, with the promise of a bigger responsibility in store for him.
ALSO READ: Can Virat Kohli go past his 'final frontier'?On turning decks where most England batsmen appeared clueless against the guile of
Ravichandran Ashwin and
Ravindra Jadeja,
Joe Root stood out with his twinkling footwork to emerge as the highest run scorer for the visitors - 491 in five games@54.49, a tally that included one hundred and four fifties, which tell you how much more he could've done.
Almost a couple of years later, the 27-year-old Yorkshiremen promises to be a thorn in India's flesh again, this time in his own backyard. Replacing the out-of-sorts
Alastair Cook after the ill-fated tour of the sub-continent, Root has found form in nick of time to face an opposition he relishes to play against. With 1,102 runs in 11 Tests@68.37, including three hundreds, the point is more than made.
Since making his debut against India at Nagpur in 2012, Root has firmly established that he's no 'average Joe' with the bat, and did enough to be rated alongside Steve Smith,
Virat Kohli and
Kane Williamson as among the best batsmen of this generation. His batting style, though, is quite distinct to the other three. His game is based on a simple technique-he won't pull in the crowds or raise TRPs, but he would play the knock that defines the course of a match.
ALSO READ: Can Kohli inspire his team to a series win in England?Any fears that the extra responsibility of leading England was going to affect his game were put to rest on his captaincy debut itself when he cracked a blazing, match-winning 190 off merely 234 balls against South Africa last year.
In the build-up to this series, he's endured a couple of ordinary outings, but India won't forget in a hurry that he's just warmed up to their attack by slamming back-to-back hundreds which decided the fate of the ODI series.
While it's a known fact that he puts a massive value on his wicket, a big motivation, obviously, has to be his competition with Virat Kohli for the 'Batsman of the series' honours.
Four years ago, Root won that battle easily, while Virat was miles ahead in the next round. For the sake of their chances in this series, India would hope that Root loses again, but knowing his class, it may not happen.