Even by Joe Root's standards, this was an effortless masterpiece

NICK FRIEND AT HEADINGLEY: There is plenty going on in English cricket at present and this is a particularly fraught time to be captaining any national team. Amid everything else, it shouldn't be forgotten quite what an admirable figurehead he is

Headingley (second day of five): India 78, England 423-8 - England lead by 345 runs with two first-innings wickets in hand

Scorecard

After the absurdity of yesterday, the game was nursing a hangover and a morning tranquillity filled Headingley.

Rory Burns’ dismissal was met with a muffled semi-gasp; Dawid Malan’s entrance went almost unnoticed, worlds away from Wednesday’s frantic delirium.

Then, Haseeb Hameed’s departure paved the way for Joe Root, king of England.

He stood on the boundary’s edge and waited for Hameed to pass him. Then, he raced onto the field like a sprinter on the pistol – a genuine burst from a standing start. He doesn’t always do that, but perhaps it was a sign of just how much confidence is flowing through his veins. For a batting captain, there is no better place than the middle, focusing on nothing but the task at hand. As skipper of this England team, he hasn’t always had the luxury of coming to the crease in a position of this kind of strength, and he was determined to breathe that air in front of his home crowd.

What followed was an exhibition, a clinic and a feast. For its ease, this was among his most effortless, ridiculous hundreds. He truly is playing to an utterly absurd level, and he celebrated like a man who knew how beautifully this one – his third-fastest and his 23rd in all – had been constructed, as if he had satisfied even his own insatiable urge for perfection.

Another hundred runs in this series – and he might even have as many as five more innings at his disposal – will see him break Don Bradman’s record for the most runs in a year against a single opposition. He is two runs from 1,400 for 2021, all at an average of 69.90, 390 short of Mohammad Yousuf’s holy grail for the most in total across a calendar year.

There is plenty going on in English cricket at present and this is a particularly fraught time to be captaining its national team. Amid everything else, it should never be forgotten quite what a fine, admirable figurehead he is, balancing the significant on-field pressures with, well, everything else. In the last week, he has spoken about how “hard” he has found it to see Azeem Rafiq, a friend and former county teammate, “hurting as he is”. Ahead of the series, he sent a heartfelt message to Ben Stokes, telling the world: “I just want my friend to be okay.”

Even on this second morning, he took the time to pay tribute to Ted Dexter. “I never really had the pleasure of spending much time with him,” he said, “but he did send me a couple of emails out of the blue when I wasn't playing so well, telling me how to get back to where I wanted to be, so I really appreciated that.”

^{Haseeb Hameed added eight runs to his overnight tally}

Not that any such messages have been required in recent months. This is a golden, freakish year for a golden, freakish player.

Before today, only Michael Vaughan and Denis Compton had previously scored six Test centuries in a calendar year for England. Root’s other five have brought totals of 228, 186, 218, 109 and 180.

This edition threatened to take the mick at times; whatever field India set, he located the gaps – often vast expanses between third man and deep cover. When two men were pushed out on the hook, he rolled his wrists and split them for four. Such was his control, he hardly left a ball alone. Alongside Dawid Malan, for whom this was a near-perfect return to five-day cricket, he put on 139 in 31 overs. With Jonny Bairstow, he added 52.

Partners would come and go, Root just carried on his merry way. The stroke to bring up three figures – a clip that immaculately bisected fielders at midwicket and mid-on – was its crowning glory.

Earlier, the constant was Hameed, carried along by a resolute self-belief in his technique and the protective, familial goodwill of all those in attendance. It was a fitting precursor to what followed from his captain. Few England careers in recent times have been accompanied by such public willingness as Hameed’s.

He was a child when it began; the profile photo on his Cricinfo page acting as a poignant reminder of the babyface teenager first cast into international cricket.

Quite how many people remember the minutiae of his first stint as a Test opener would make for an interesting survey; he struck two half centuries in four games – the second with a broken finger – but it was more the story of his rise that captured the wider imagination. He posed for photos with Virat Kohli and met Sachin Tendulkar; that it ended in injury seemed immaterial because of the inevitability that he would come again.

For a while, such an assumption appeared agonisingly misplaced. But he is back now, wearing the face of a man, albeit with the same enduring qualities of humility and class that first took him to this level as a boy. He might just be better placed to succeed now than he was before, having emerged intact from a period of strife. When youngsters reach the pinnacle, so often they have never seen failure, so their first experience comes once the scrutiny is at its greatest and the fall is at its steepest.

^{Ishant Sharma cut a weary figure for India}

There will be further challenges ahead, not least in the second innings of this Test – if and when it comes – with Kohli demanding so much more from a team that, quite simply, has not turned up. On the other side of this summer, the prospect of an Ashes tour looms; questions have been asked of Hameed’s setup against the short ball, but he negotiated a sustained spell of bouncers from Jasprit Bumrah in mostly composed fashion, other than one blow to the back of the helmet. It ended not long afterwards, however; he became bogged down and went 28 balls without a run before a beauty from Ravindra Jadeja beat his outside edge and dislodged his off-bail.

His dismissal was the first in the series by an Indian spinner, and it awoke the crowd; in all, he had only added eight runs in 90 minutes to his overnight tally, but the serenity of his morning’s work reaffirmed the platform for what was to come. It was only 68 – not even his highest Test score – but it was the first of four half centuries for England’s top four, a feat accomplished for the first time since at Dunedin in 2013.

On that occasion, Steven Finn was sent in as nightwatchman, made 56 off 203 deliveries and spent 67.5 overs in the middle. By then, Alastair Cook and Nick Compton had both reached three figures, before Jonathan Trott hit 52. Simpler times, when the quality of England’s batting line-up was without doubt taken for granted. In that game, Root came in at No.7 with Matt Prior beneath him. Truly, an embarrassment of riches.

For India, this day was as dismal was the one that came before. From the sidelines, Ravichandran Ashwin could only watch on as an intrigued spectator; Ishant Sharma fielded like a broken man, and England rubbed salt into the wound by pinching a single to him at every opportunity. Days like this are fascinating, especially in the midst of a five-match series. Quite how India respond could define the direction of travel for the next three weeks: Mohammed Shami was the best bowler on display by a mile but left the field midway through the evening session, though he did return before the close.

The lethargy of the fielding performance was so out of kilter with what this team has become, the antithesis of Indian cricket’s Kohli Age that won in Australia even when so badly depleted. But here, a team fashioned in the intensity of its captain had been pedestrianised, partly by the aberration of Wednesday but then by Root, a man collecting records.