Joe Root took his Test match batting to another level with a shot straight out of the T20 playbook to stun those watching.
Root might have scored more than 10,000 runs looking every inch the classical Test match batsman, but in his last two innings he has batted in a way that Keanu Reeve’s Neo might do if it was a skill uploaded for the Matrix.
There have been drives, flicks, sweeps and leaves of total control, but on the fourth morning at Trent Bridge, Root played a reverse scoop for six off Tim Southee that had to be seen to be believed. It was 16 years ago that Kevin Pietersen did something equally outrageous to Muttiah Muralitharan, before repeating the trick against Scott Styris a couple of summers later.
Ben Stokes produced the most memorable reverse hit six at Headingley in 2019 when his match-winning hundred was a blend of Test match resistance and T20 improvisation. And in making 176 out of England 's eventual 539 all out here, Root showed that he too has the shots and the tricks that can take the breath away.
“This is outrageous!” said former Kiwi bowler Simon Doull on commentary. “That is so good and it is not a spur of the moment thing, he will have practised that in the nets. There is no reason why Root couldn’t be a fine T20 player, he has all the shots in the book.”
It just so happens that the last time Root pulled this shot out of the locker on the international stage was back in 2016 at the T20 World Cup when he reverse ramped Chris Morris for six on his way to 83. It is unlikely that Root will break back into Eoin Morgan ’s T20 side ahead of the World Cup in Australia later this year, but he will keep trying to show what they might be missing.
“Joe would love to get back into that T20 side,” said his dad Matt in the tea-break on BBC radio. “Some of the shots he’s played in this Test have been sensational. That reverse ramp shot was something else.”
Two hundreds in his first two matches after giving up the captaincy might suggest a connection between the two but his form has been remarkable dating back to the start of 2021 and the ten hundreds he has scored since then at an average of 59. And it was thanks in part to the first throw downs his dad gave him for more than 10 years.
“He asked me to throw to him and it was incredible how often he hit the middle of the bat,” added Matt. “I hadn’t done it for such a long time and I threw my back out. He asked me to do it again the next day, but I couldn’t!”
