Heavy sits the crown of captaincy on Joe Root after ugly half-century

[Mohamed Nasser]

Root entered his own Bermuda triangle, once again, after passing 50 before getting out to a fearsome Pat Cummins ball

To receive one stump‑splaying, seam‑fizzing, late‑afternoon miracle ball from Pat Cummins might be considered a misfortune. To get two in five days starts to look like … well, what exactly?

Bad luck for Joe Root, certainly, whose misfortune it was to face the opening ball of Cummins’s 15th over on the first day of this Oval Test. It was Cummins who had brought Root to the crease half an hour into the day, luring Joe Denly into a doomed push-drive against the new ball.

Two sessions and 140 balls later Root had scratched his way to a resolute, if slightly bruised and migrainous half century. Once again Cummins had been the pick of Australia’s attack, relentless in his line, speeds never dipping. There is plenty of craft in Cummins. But he is also a phenomenal fast-bowling athlete.

The ball to Root was full-ish and angling in towards middle stump. Root read the line, stayed on his crease and went to defend, playing slightly across himself, perhaps glimpsing the ball in that moment trickling to mid-on, or even beating his left hand.

It had been slightly painful progress to that point. On a crisp, browny-green south London day Root had looked at times like a man draining the last drops of juice from the tank. With good reason. Since the start of May Root has played 24 international matches across three formats, with the full hand in recent weeks of captaincy, post-match blah, dawn stress and night-time insomnia. Even walking to the wicket at first drop these last two matches England’s captain has resembled some bedraggled desert soldier emerging from the dunes at Alexandria, khakis caked with salt and sand, craving just a single cold beer and the credits.

There is an added desperation in playing out a final Test match as captain with the urn already gone. Both teams have been at pains to stress this series is still very much alive. Australia are desperate to win over here. For England, careers are on the line, considerable winter earnings being divvied up. Most of all this match matters for Root, who will be desperate not to oversee a home series defeat.

Slightly bowed, he took guard and began to scratch away at the day. And there were signs of progress. Too often Root has been accused of compiling a series of pretty half-centuries. Here at least he compiled an ugly half-century.

There were three drops before he got past 30, the last two off Cummins.

The half-century came up at 3.10pm with England two wickets down and paddling their way towards some kind of platform. There were the usual calls of “Rooooot” around the stands, but with a sense of hope rather than bullishness. Root tends to find himself entering another place once he gets past 50, a kind of lost zone, his own Bermuda triangle.

It has become a nagging absence in a career of wonderful numbers. Michael Vaughan used to talk about Root as the best batsmen England has ever produced, and after 60 Tests he averaged 54 with 13 hundreds. In his past 26, going back to November 2017, he has gone at 36 with three hundreds. The feeling of entropy has become a leitmotif for a career that still lacks some sense of defining peaks. There is no series he has truly dominated, no summer of Joe, and certainly, as yet, no Root’s Ashes.

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Captaincy might have brought that final step up. Instead it has constrained him. The vim and pep and energy of the middle-order gun has been replaced by a careworn figure. Root is England captain because he wants to be, because there’s no obvious other choice, and because he might get better at it. Something more significant is being lost.

Albeit, not without a struggle. Here Root met the best of Cummins once again. This time he had a clear sight of the ball. Except, as he leaned to the off the ball began to jag the other way. If he has a fault right now it is perhaps that tendency to topple a little, a fitting case of heavy-head syndrome.

The ball passed Root’s outside edge and hit the bottom half of off stump, sending the bail spinning away. It was a supreme delivery, and an unlucky end, perhaps, to a streaky innings. But then almost every day of this Ashes series seems to have taken a bite out of England’s captain.

By the end of this first day England had passed the latest point any Ashes Test has ever been played in this country. There is a sense of renewal here, too. Win or lose England will be entering a new Test cycle after the endgame. For Root – dogged here, and even a little heroic – it can’t come quickly enough.