Imperious Joe Root steered his side to a record-breaking run chase that secured a series draw with India and put the seal on an incredible first half of the Test summer.
Root added a 28th Test hundred to his collection, his 3rd in four matches, his fourth of this delayed India series and his 11th since the start of 2021. Somehow the world’s best batsman is still getting better, reeling off hundreds as if they were Beatles hits in a Glastonbury headline slot.
And he is doing it in an era - albeit a four match old era - when the England gameplan has gone through a seismic shift. The fact is that Root is still, far and away the best batsman on show even though Jonny Bairstow is in the sort of purple patch that would make even the artist formerly known as Prince happy.
Under normal circumstances it would be right to call England’s chasing down of 378-3 to win by seven wickets at a canter, ‘jaw-dropping’ stuff. And yet such is the transformation of England’s Test team from one in the doldrums to one that is lighting up the world stage, this result felt inevitable from the moment opener Alex Lees charged down the pitch third ball.
And it became something of a formality on the final day when Root and his former Yorkshire academy team-mate Bairstow put the finishing touches on their twin hundreds and an unbroken partnership of 269, the 3rd highest ever in a successful fourth innings run chase.
The pair only needed 90 minutes to knock off the remaining 119 runs they required at the start of day five to make sure that a new option could be added to the Edgbaston lunch menu - ‘liquid.’
It didn’t matter where the Indian attack bowled - and this is a seriously good attack too led by interim skipper Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami - they were met with the full blades of Root and Bairstow.
Sometimes it was done with artistry and guile with an opened face here or a flick of the wrists there, and sometimes it was just utterly dismissive with brutal pulls of straight drives that would have split any shin in the way. And then there were the cheeky or inventive shots such as Root’s reverse scoop for six off Shardul Thakur.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Root. “I love batting and I love this team which is brilliantly led by a great mate in Stokesy. It’s like being a kid again. It’s like how it felt when I first started playing and it’s how it should be.
“Hopefully the way that we’re playing at the minute can inspire a lot of youngsters to take up the game and enjoy it and get excited about Test cricket and love it as we do. The feeling in the dressing room is ‘whatever you get, we’re going for it and will take you down.’”
No-one has epitomised that shift in mentality more than Bairstow who has scored four hundreds of his own this summer and six in the calendar year which is a joint England record. With five more Tests to come in 2022, who knows how many he or Root may yet end up with, but it is clear they are not going to die wondering.
Bairstow in particular has been a middle order powerhouse of clean hitting since hitting his straps at Trent Bridge, but it is the way he has managed to harness the same vibe game after game that has been so impressive.
