Former England captain Michael Vaughan has cautioned the world’s No. 1 Test batter, Joe Root, regarding his future encounters with Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah. Vaughan’s warning follows Root’s underwhelming performance in the third Test against Sri Lanka, which England lost by 8 wickets at The Oval on Monday, September 9. Root managed only 13 and 12 runs in his two innings, a stark contrast to his twin centuries in the second Test at Lord’s.
In his column for a leading daily, Vaughan stressed Bumrah’s potential to disrupt Root’s performances in the upcoming five-match Test series between England and India next summer. “Jasprit Bumrah enjoys bowling at Root and could severely limit his output next summer,” Vaughan stated. He also mentioned Australia’s Pat Cummins as another bowler who has consistently troubled Root, particularly highlighting Root’s inability to score a century in Australia. “The same goes for Pat Cummins in Australia, where Root has never scored a hundred. England need to figure out ways to succeed when Root doesn’t make big runs. Based on this game, they haven’t found a solution,” Vaughan remarked.
Acknowledging Root’s significance to the England team, Michael Vaughan further discussed the former England captain’s vital role in the batting order. “This week really hit home to me how important Joe Root is to this batting lineup. His batting is the key. All these flamboyant players around him get flamboyant fifties. But without the glue at No. 4 getting the huge amount of runs he does, they are knackered. He can’t do it every week, and he didn’t do it this week,” Vaughan explained.
Joe Root, widely considered one of England’s greatest batters, holds multiple records, including the most centuries for England in both Test and ODI cricket. He is also the nation’s all-time leading run scorer in international cricket, with 12,401 Test runs to his name. Root is on the verge of breaking Alastair Cook’s record for the most Test runs by an English player, needing just 72 more runs. Furthermore, he is close to becoming the first batter in World Test Championship history to surpass 5000 runs, needing just 27 runs to reach that milestone.
Joe Root is certainly the backbone of the England test team, do you agree?
