Fired-up Root brings the heat but where were the seamers?

SHORT ball banged in, zips up, whizzes past the grill of a world-class batter caught unawares. Such deliveries were commonplace in the last Test played between England and Australia on this ground, throughout one of the great spells in recent cricket history; hurled, elegantly, out of the hand of Jofra Archer at upwards of 90mph towards the head of Steve Smith.

- Malik Ouzia

As the scoreboard flashed 75mph here, you could not, worryingly, rule one or two of England’s current seamers out of contention. Thankfully, in some ways, though perhaps not in others, as Marnus Labuschagne stared quizzically down the wicket at his assailant, his eyes fell on none other than Joe Root.

Well over 100 matches into his Test career, we thought we knew the many faces of Root. There was the oft-cited cheeky chappy in the cordon, then the often bedraggled skipper, both interchangeable at contact between palm and bat handle with that of the artist supreme. But by throwing him the ball with more regularity and, in this match in particular, more responsibility, Ben Stokes seems to have awakened another, more animated persona in his old pal.

It was in evidence at Edgbaston, where Root, in an uncharacteristic act of self-hype, took his cheerleading role in the field to the top of his own bowling mark, geeing up the crowd as if Stuart Broad or Sergei Bubka were about to charge, before twirling in with not-so-quiet determination himself.