Sri Lanka vs England: Root’s One Man Show Gets England Back In The Game, Day 4 First Session Score Update

England Skipper Joe Root has scored 55% of England’s runs in the first innings of the second Test in Galle. He was defying the Sri Lankan conditions.

Joe Root, Photo Courtesy: @root66 / Twitter

It looked as if Joe Root was batting on a completely different surface as compared to his other teammates. The England number one and world number five scored 150 runs for a second consecutive time in the series. Unfortunately, he got run out for 186. Perhaps, the only way the Lankans could have got him out.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Joe Root has scored 49.26% of England&#39;s runs this series so far.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SLvENG?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>#SLvENG</a> <a href="https://t.co/n6K7WV0i6m" rel='nofollow'>pic.twitter.com/n6K7WV0i6m</a></p>&mdash; Wisden (@WisdenCricket) <a href="https://twitter.com/WisdenCricket/status/1353231701707812867?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>January 24, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Joe Root looked like a package player. In the highlights package, one would miss the ones and twos that he keeps on taking to tick the score over, but this knack of rotating the strike rattles the fielding side. Plus, Root is not just that, he can scores boundaries by reverse-sweeping and sweeping too and play straight-forward shots as well. Root had a poor 2020 where he failed to score a century; only the first time in his career that, he went through an entire calendar year without scoring a 100. He had previously said that he spent most of the 2020 thinking about how he could better his technique and score more runs for the team.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Test century No.1⃣9⃣ for the England skipper, his fourth against Sri Lanka!<br><br>No other 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 batsman has scored more Test hundreds against 🇱🇰 than Joe Root 👏<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SLvENG?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>#SLvENG</a> | <a href="https://t.co/BtLz95cMXH" rel='nofollow'>https://t.co/BtLz95cMXH</a> <a href="https://t.co/SkxuRUmdY5" rel='nofollow'>pic.twitter.com/SkxuRUmdY5</a></p>&mdash; ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1353221484945174528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>January 24, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Recently he surpassed the Test runs tally of England greats David Gower and GeoffreyBoycott. He is just 225 runs short of surpassing Alec Stewart and becoming England’s third highest run scorer. English batsman have always struggled to score in sub-continental conditions. It’s not just the turning tracks and quality spinners of Asia, but also the heat and humidity play a role as the English are not used to such weather conditions. This was yet against seen in the second Test against Sri Lanka where apart from Joe Root, only Jos Buttler managed to go past the score of 50 runs. To put things in place, Root has scored 305 more runs than any other English batsman in this series, yes, 305!

This version of Joe Root is strong, resilient and dangerous. India would be looking at Root’s performance very closely and must be mapping out ideas to get him out quickly. To sum-up the batting style of Root, he is a mix of both Kevin Pietersen and Alistair Cook. Calm, composed and aggressive as well.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Joe root flipping the bat just before facing the ball is phenomenal 🤯🤯<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/INDvENG?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>#INDvENG</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SLvsENG?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>#SLvsENG</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Joeroot?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>#Joeroot</a> <a href="https://t.co/WdOjOp96fx" rel='nofollow'>pic.twitter.com/WdOjOp96fx</a></p>&mdash; Rithvik Shetty (@Shetty10Rithvik) <a href="https://twitter.com/Shetty10Rithvik/status/1353237598752280583?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>January 24, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sri Lanka vs. England Full Scores (Before the end of 1^st session, Day 4)

Sri Lanka 1^st Innings: 381/10 (Matthews 110, Dickwella 92; Anderson 6-40, Wood 3-84)

England 1^st Innings: 344/10 (Root 186, Buttler 55; Embuldeniya 7-137) – Sri Lanka lead by 37 runs

Sri Lanka 2^nd Innings: 67/6* (Perrera 14, Thirimanne 13; Bess 3-22, Leach 3-27)

Sri Lanka lead by 104 runs at the end of first session on Day 4 of the Test match.

The scores would worry the SL team as they are four down in no time. They have also lost Angelo Matthews, the centurion of the first innings. The onus now lies on Mendis and Perera.