The Times - UK - 04.12.2021

before something like 20 times on the

trot because he kept falling over and

getting trapped in front.”

When in recent times, in Test

cricket, Root has tried going back and

across in his trigger movement, this

has created the same problem (as did

widening his stance). When doing this

he had a tendency to place too much

weight on the outside of his back

(right) leg, causing his knee to bend

outside the line of his front leg,

meaning he was camped on his back

foot and so his back hip became easily

exposed as he tried to compensate.

It also meant that his hands stayed

low. As is the modern way, Root holds

his bat aloft, but will then drop his

hands before pushing them back

again as he moves into a shot. When

he has struggled, the third part of this

sequence has just not happened and

his hands have stayed low, creating

jabbing motions rather than any

flowing movement.

When playing forward, some

I

t was in October last year that

Joe Root addressed the subject of

his presence in what has become

known as the “fab four”, a group

that also comprises Virat Kohli,

Kane Williamson and Steve Smith,

although Babar Azam has a good

cause to take the number up to five

and Marnus Labuschagne would not

look out of place among them either.

Talking to The Analyst’s Inside

Cricket Club Root said: “I try not to

measure myself against Kohli,

Williamson and Smith. I’m not sure I

put myself in their bracket.”

At the time he was probably right.

Root was not quite in that top

echelon. His form had dipped from

previous heights. The big scores had

dried up. He was ninth in the Test

rankings. Smith was top, with Kohli

second and Williamson fourth.

Now things are very different. Root

has enjoyed a simply stellar year as

the leading runscorer in Test cricket,

with 1,455 runs at 66.13, including six

centuries, two of them doubles, and

he sits atop those rankings.

Williamson is second, with Smith

third and Kohli down at sixth.

Root certainly belongs in that

company now. Ahead of him lies a

challenge that thus far has proved

insurmountable for him. He has never

scored a Test century in Australia. It

is a glaring miss from his palmarès.

What is more, the 30-year-old faces

a key battle against Smith, one in

which he has been trounced in the

past two Ashes series. In 2019, Smith

made 774 runs at 110.57 with three

hundreds, while Root made 325 at

32.50, without a century. In 2017-18

Smith again averaged three figures,

with 687 runs at 137.40, with another

three hundreds. Root made 378 at

47.25, with nothing in the century

column again.

Ashes series are always defining in

so many ways, but for Root,

particularly in Australia, they have

proved detrimental to his technique.

It is not that he struggles with the

bounce and the inevitable short balls,

it is just that when forced back in his

crease so often, he then struggles to

transfer his weight forwards for the

fuller balls.

Batting is so much about balance.

There was a time in his younger days

when Root grew so quickly that this

became a real problem. As Kevin

Sharp, his former coach at Yorkshire,

has said: “His legs got a lot longer and

he could hardly stand up. The lads

nicknamed him Bambi. There was

one point where he was out leg-

SMITH V

Battle of the

world’s best

could decide

fate of Ashes

14 1GS Saturday December 4 2021 | the times

Sport Cricket

Joe Root and Steve Smith are the stars of

their sides’ batting line-ups. Steve James

explains what makes them so special

batsmen lead with their head —

Kevin Pietersen was a brilliant

example — but others, such as Root,

lead with their foot. It means that you

will rarely see Root with his head over

a bent front leg on the front foot. His

head will always be slightly behind

that front leg, thus why he plays so

square of the wicket. It also means

that he has to be spot on in his weight

transfer, otherwise he is unbalanced

and that often results in hands

thrown out in panic and a gate for the

ball to pass through.

What Root has done this year is

change his trigger, returning to the

simplicity of his original technique.

Now he goes straight back with his

back foot, as his front foot hovers

until he has determined the line and

length of the ball. He is conscious of

not going on to his toes in his stance

because that would push him to the

off side and off balance, but once he

moves, he is quickly on to his toes

and ensuring that he is “leaving his

head behind”, as the coaching

parlance goes, as he moves his back

foot, meaning his weight is still

slightly forward.

By going straight back, Root is

much more side-on and therefore

able to play the ball late, so much

more comfortably, hitting it under his

eyes, an imperative for his trademark

back-foot punch and dab to third

man. There is a wonderful rhythm to

his movements with both feet and

hands, moving his hands back nicely,

and naturally cocking his wrists in

what is now called the process of

“unweighting” as he does so.

Root may not measure himself

against the other three in the “fab

four”, but he does watch them. He

picked up a bat twirl in his stance

(now mostly abandoned) from

Williamson that he used to help his

rhythm last winter in Sri Lanka and

India.

Root’s mindset has altered too. He

does bear a heavy burden carrying

How rivals compare

Root Smith

Runs

0 20 40 60 80 100

000s

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Tests

Average

0 20 40 60 80 100

100

80

60

40

20

Tests 0

Centuries

0 20 40 60 80 100

Tests

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

Where they score

their runs

Off side Leg side

Scoring zones of Smith and Root

over past 20 Tests

Smith Root

19.4%

19.3%

9.1%

9.0%

7.1 %

4.4%

16.8%

8.6%

17.0%

21.5%

2.9%

5.2%

4.1%

9.8%

23.6%

22.1%

1GS Saturday December 4 2021

00 s

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0

100

80

60

40

20

0

30

25

Notice Smith’s

excellent balance

and how much of

the blade of the

bat can be seen (1).

This is no

outrageous flick.

This looks like a

good-length ball so

Smith has

straightened his

front leg (2) to stay

on top of the

bounce

1

2

SIGNATURE

SHOT

2

1

2

3

4

Line of off stump

Backward

point

3

Weight

slightly

behind

front foot

Smith’s back foot is partially

outside off stump (I) but his

front foot is left open (2) so as

not to close himself off. His

head is far enough forward

(3) to allow him to get on the

front foot, and his bat,

although pointing to

backward point (4), will come

round and down straight once

the ball is released

STANCE