World News – UK – Derek Pringle: It’s foolish to think that the reliable Joe Root still can’t play a T20 role

A YEAR can be a long time in a rapidly evolving format like Twenty20, so Team England fields may not duplicate the field now which, if the pandemics allow, hopefully the World T20 next fall -Trophy raised in India.

That might as well be judged by the warm-up games in South Africa, where Jos Buttler’s team have beaten Eoin Morgan’s side by 20 and 50 overs so far.

Obviously, more is learned from the White Ball series against South Africa, which is more than playing against your friends. For England, however, so many significant performances have been made from outside the official squad as in.

Interestingly, Team Morgan led to victory in the 50 Over World Championship last year. It was three different from what had played against India 12 months earlier, and one of those differences was compounded by an injury.

This isn’t great news for Joe Root, a member of the English team, who is over 50, but not for the T20 team, who will face South Africa in three games starting Friday. All games are scheduled either in Newlands or in Paarl, a town 30 miles northeast of Cape Town. The one-day series will follow in early December in the same two locations.

Root has not played T20 cricket for England since May 2019. In his absence, he had to rest (he is the England captain in tests and a permanent fixture on the ODI team) and was dropped in search of power hitters – hit hit rates in T20 after falling from his career count of 126 runs per 100 Balls had gone north.

Root is also a victim of the many fine destructive batsmen England has in the format like Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy, not to mention Ben Stokes and Morgan themselves, as well as the team’s depth of clout.

The combination of these factors means England can be aggressive longer than other teams, negating the need for a reliable – albeit slightly slower scoring – player like Root to keep the innings together.

Some teams still prefer such a pure batsman. For example, India has Virat Kohli, Australia has Steve Smith, and New Zealand has Kane Williamson. But they need them because their lashes drop off at around six or seven while England’s goes to eight, if not nine.

That would change if someone like Sam Curran came on England’s team, possibly at Moeen Ali’s expense. Then a player like Root might be needed not only for his reliability with the racket, but also to offer a spin option with the ball.

Adil Rashid is England’s top spinner in the T20, but it will take them a second for next year’s games in India, where the places are closer to taking hold.

Normally Moeen would be that man, but Morgan doesn’t seem to trust him anymore to throw his full four overs after giving the off-spinner a single over in each of his last six T20 internationals.

Part of Roots problem is impressions, not what he makes of other cricketers. Like some other good batsmen like Alec Stewart and Michael Vaughan, Root has a hard time beating himself. He uses the mind via the muscles to achieve his runs. However, whether this is enough to convince those who consider a hit rate of 135-140 as a new entry into the top 6 of the English T20 is debatable.

If the next World T20 had been in Australia as it was planned before Covid struck, the Force would have been a consideration in the tougher fields and larger grounds, and one that Root could rightly have ruled out. But there is more than one way to keep scoreboards moving in India, as demonstrated by Root in the last World T20 four years ago when he was England’s top runscorer at 249 with a hit rate of 146. Its ability to hit almost any ball on the field (it picks up fewer scoring balls than most) is vital when the emollient ball can be difficult to remove.

But Morgan is something of a veteran of the Indian Premier League so knows the conditions there well and you can sense he’s looking for batsmen who can use brute force to clear the ropes regardless of the phase or state of the game.

If the mood music suggests England has moved from Root for T20, I feel like the selectors haven’t ruled him out completely yet. His 45 balls out of just 26 in Buttler’s team win on Monday are a reminder that he’s not ready to be written off just yet.

Twenty20, Joe Root, England Cricket Team, One Day International, Jos Buttler