Joe Root
Cruel for Oz that bad light forced Stokes to bowl the spinners. Root then picked up Marny and became England's most dangerous bowler.
"It was a ploy Ben Stokes had no choice but to turn to after umpires told him that the deterioration of natural light had made bowling their pacemen too dangerous a prospect.
Given the choice between facing Mark Wood with a Dukes ball that had just been changed over after the old one was bounced out of shape, or the off-breaks of Moeen Ali and Joe Root, it was obvious what Australia would have picked.
Yet Root had twice found the outside edge of Labuschagne and Green's exit to the part-timer at Lord's last month to a horror shot was no doubt still fresh in his memory.
As a succession of plays-and-misses, false shots, balls turning out of the rough and a tough dropped chance from Harry Brook off Marsh ensued in a tense period before the scheduled tea break, the towering pair might have briefly wished for the return of Wood."
(cricket.com.au)
"It was a ploy Ben Stokes had no choice but to turn to after umpires told him that the deterioration of natural light had made bowling their pacemen too dangerous a prospect.
Given the choice between facing Mark Wood with a Dukes ball that had just been changed over after the old one was bounced out of shape, or the off-breaks of Moeen Ali and Joe Root, it was obvious what Australia would have picked.
Yet Root had twice found the outside edge of Labuschagne and Green's exit to the part-timer at Lord's last month to a horror shot was no doubt still fresh in his memory.
As a succession of plays-and-misses, false shots, balls turning out of the rough and a tough dropped chance from Harry Brook off Marsh ensued in a tense period before the scheduled tea break, the towering pair might have briefly wished for the return of Wood."
(cricket.com.au)
He's plainly been the best 3 in the World over 2023. Marnus has had a poor year and there is nobody else who played enough Test cricket to be considered.
That said, his figures are inflated by playing against New Zealand and Ireland (153*, 95 and 2 more 50s in just 5 innings). Also, he isn't much use against good quick bowling. His 2023 average against Cummins is 19.33 and against Starc it's 10. What he did do against Australia was make a large volume of runs against Murphy, iin partricular, and the other second-stringers.
That said, his figures are inflated by playing against New Zealand and Ireland (153*, 95 and 2 more 50s in just 5 innings). Also, he isn't much use against good quick bowling. His 2023 average against Cummins is 19.33 and against Starc it's 10. What he did do against Australia was make a large volume of runs against Murphy, iin partricular, and the other second-stringers.
The sh** has hit the fan over Root's reverse ramp/pull to get out to Bumrah.
Alistair Cook:
'It has completely split opinion.
I've seen it described as the worst shot ever played for England in a Test, but other people have said you can't applaud all the great extravagant shots England's players have played in the Bazball era and then criticise the ones that don't come off.
I thought that tactically it was the wrong time to do it. India were missing Ravichandran Ashwin, it was 17 minutes into the day and Bumrah is their best bowler.
...
I think some of Root's issues have come from his determination to be supportive of Stokes, who took over from him as captain. He was determined to show that he bought into how Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum wanted to play the game. But I wonder if the amount of praise Stokes gets has affected Root.
Players are coming out all the time and saying what a great leader Stokes is and how much they enjoy playing for him. The unspoken bit is "compared to what it was like under the previous regime". You would have to have no ego at all not to take it even slightly personally.'
(The Sunday Times)
Alistair Cook:
'It has completely split opinion.
I've seen it described as the worst shot ever played for England in a Test, but other people have said you can't applaud all the great extravagant shots England's players have played in the Bazball era and then criticise the ones that don't come off.
I thought that tactically it was the wrong time to do it. India were missing Ravichandran Ashwin, it was 17 minutes into the day and Bumrah is their best bowler.
...
I think some of Root's issues have come from his determination to be supportive of Stokes, who took over from him as captain. He was determined to show that he bought into how Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum wanted to play the game. But I wonder if the amount of praise Stokes gets has affected Root.
Players are coming out all the time and saying what a great leader Stokes is and how much they enjoy playing for him. The unspoken bit is "compared to what it was like under the previous regime". You would have to have no ego at all not to take it even slightly personally.'
(The Sunday Times)
Re: Joe Root
Michael Vaughan:
"This week really hit home to me how important Joe Root is to this batting line-up. His batting is the key. All these flamboyant players around him get flamboyant fifties. But without the glue at No.4 getting the huge number of runs he does, they are knackered. He cannot do it every week, and he did not do it this week. Jasprit Bumrah enjoys bowling at Root, and could severely limit his output next summer. The same goes for Pat Cummins in Australia, where Root has never scored a hundred. England have to find ways of succeeding when Root does not make big runs. On the basis of this game, they do not."
(Telegraph, London)
"This week really hit home to me how important Joe Root is to this batting line-up. His batting is the key. All these flamboyant players around him get flamboyant fifties. But without the glue at No.4 getting the huge number of runs he does, they are knackered. He cannot do it every week, and he did not do it this week. Jasprit Bumrah enjoys bowling at Root, and could severely limit his output next summer. The same goes for Pat Cummins in Australia, where Root has never scored a hundred. England have to find ways of succeeding when Root does not make big runs. On the basis of this game, they do not."
(Telegraph, London)