Why Joe Root is so good against spin

David Saker, the fast-bowling coach of Sri Lanka, explained why Joe Root was so successful against spin in the subcontinent after the England captain had laid the foundation for a big total for his side with an impeccable knock of 168 not out on day two of the first Test at Galle yesterday.

“Joe’s prophesy is that he has got a good plan. He understands how to play spin really well. He has done more work on his technique against spin and he looked so good. Just him being so comfortable at the crease puts pressure on the bowlers straight away,” said Saker in a virtual media conference at the end of the day.

“He plays back quite deep, so it is sort of hard to put pressure on him; and when you try to get up a bit fuller, he uses his feet and hits the ball down the ground. He also sweeps very well and he is always putting it back onto the bowler. He is hard to sort of get into a groove and bowl one length because he tries to put you off by trying to go deep in his crease or coming at you sweeping. He has been very good at that and our guys haven’t been good enough to combat him. It’s been frustrating at times. It looked like if a couple of lbw appeals could have come our way it would have been nice but it didn’t. He looked in complete control.”

Barring Root, the Lankan bowlers failed to exert pressure on the other batsmen – especially Dan Lawrence, who was allowed to score a fifty on his Test debut. 

“For a person coming in for his debut we didn’t put much pressure on him. In the first 10 deliveries, we bowled three full tosses and two or three half trackers. In your debut, if you are off your mark with 10 off 10 balls, you sort of feel pretty comfortable, and we didn’t make him uncomfortable at all,” said Saker.

“That was really disappointing, sitting from where I sat, that didn’t happen. When you come to a place like Sri Lanka – and we got some spinners and fielders around the bat – usually it is one of the most daunting places to come. We gifted him some easy balls to get his innings going and he looked comfortable at the crease. He looked a really good player but we made it quite easy for him at the start.”

Saker said that Lasith Embuldeniya didn’t get the support he deserved from the other bowlers. “We have talked long and hard about two bowlers bowling in partnerships and putting pressure on the batters. We just didn’t do that today. Hopefully we can do that tomorrow morning and get some early wickets. But then again, the batting of Joe Root was exceptional and the young fellow on debut was very good,” he said.

Talking of the match situation at the end of day two, Saker said: “It’s been a tough couple of days for us. The best way we can approach it is try to start as fresh as we can and get the six wickets as quick as we can. Right now, we are a long way behind in the game. The opposition has played very well and we haven’t played as well as we could have.

“We need to get these six wickets and hopefully get our batters back in and try to make sure we put a pretty good account of ourselves with the bat. Who knows, when day four comes around and day five, if we can be somewhere in front of the English team. You never know.”

Root said that he can see the game going only one way, and it was really important that England make the most of it in the first innings.

England has a lead of 185 with six wickets in hand and Root still at the crease.

“Things could happen very quickly as the game moves forward and it generally does here. With the lead we have got now we want to make it count and put them under pressure that way we are trying to bat just once,” said Root.

The England skipper was very sympathetic towards Kusal Mendis, who took several blows to his body fielding at short leg when he played the sweep shot. “It’s a horrible scenario. The sweep is a strong scoring shot for me, and I did really feel for him. It’s not a nice place to field in the best of times. He is a very good fielder in that position. I hope he is alright.” (ST)