NICK FRIEND: This was Root’s longest Test innings in terms of balls faced since becoming England captain in 2017. His previous highest came in his very first game as skipper against South Africa at Lord’s
Well, if this is the new blueprint, then England have something to work with. After collapsing from 277 for 4 to 353 all out at Mount Maunganui, senior players called for patience as they look to adapt to a more pragmatic game plan under Chris Silverwood.
On that occasion, having done the hard work, it was soon thrown away as England attacked too early and paid the price for their recklessness. Still, some optimism could be taken from the initial period of churning as Rory Burns, Joe Denly and Ben Stokes each faced more than 150 balls in setting up a platform, even if it was then squandered.
A week later, here we were, with Burns and Joe Root offering further evidence of a new way of going about their business. There was an unmistakable clarity to the precedent being set by the captain and the man who, in some eyes, might be best set to one day succeed him.
Skittish and chaotic on the previous evening, Burns was a man refreshed. The polar opposite of a harum-scarum end to the second day, he rarely engaged outside his off-stump as New Zealand sought to tempt him into offering a flashing blade.
When the bowlers dropped short, he would pull them with a willful disdain – he began behind square but as he became increasingly settled, he unfurled a greater range. He picked his spot with the kind of authority displayed by some of his great predecessors; it was a stroke upon which both Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook feasted.
If Burns' maiden Test century at Edgbaston against Australia was a victory for sheer willpower, then this was a far more watchable effort. Make no mistake, it is still early days, but England appear to have found themselves a long-term answer to a question that, for some time, seemed an impossible quandary.
That it has come in the form of county cricket’s most consistent opening batsman of recent times is both gratifying for those toiling away on the domestic circuit, but also unsurprising to anyone who has watched the way in which he goes about his work.
Rory Burns and Joe Root both reached centuries
He will face tougher challenges than an easy-paced Hamilton pitch, but the way in which he dealt with the short ball was impressive, nonetheless. Australia had focused on it as a chink in Burns’ armour during the Ashes, but his plan here was more certain – sway, wear, clip or pull. Even the occasional smear. But never fend.
His surety here – at least until running himself out – complemented that of his skipper. Root was not at his most fluent, but that was part of its sublime quality. He was never quite at his best, but this was a fine hundred made by a player operating well within himself.
Its significance was not once lost on Root himself. So much of his innings passed without incident that one often wondered from where his runs had come.
This was Root’s longest Test innings in terms of balls faced since becoming England captain in 2017. His previous highest came in his very first game as skipper against South Africa at Lord’s.
He fought with and against himself throughout; it was a fine display of guts, determination and stubbornness – an obstinacy both against criticism of his captaincy and of his recent run-getting.
A first Test hundred for nine months and 15 innings, it will have been worth every strained sinew for the Yorkshireman. Inside-edging over BJ Watling will not have been the way he would have imagined bringing up the milestone, but the smile on his face told its own story.
Only Wally Hammond in history has scored more runs with a better average for England than Root. Since he became captain, no Englishman has averaged more.
What’s that phrase? Form is temporary…
Third in the ICC Test rankings, Neil Wagner may also be the game’s most fascinating bowler. So often New Zealand’s self-appointed enforcer, here he found himself under the pump as Burns and Root feasted on his diet of bouncers and leg-theory.
And then, somewhat out of the blue, a loopy back-spinning knuckle-ball – a delivery with the trajectory of a tennis racket miscue – dipped and swung towards the England captain. He kept it out by the skin of his teeth. As the day wore on, Wagner continued with it.
In itself, the variation is hardly revolutionary – it is a ball bowled regularly in one-day cricket. However, rarely does it react so dramatically with the white ball. Another one almost had Burns caught behind, before he briefly found some reserve swing with a 70-over-old ball.
He truly has an answer for every occasion. He never gives in; even when he called the groundsman onto the field to correct a footmark, he ripped the hammer from his hands to take on the labour himself.
Neil Wagner has developed a reputation as a combative cricketer
Where this game goes from here, to be honest, may well depend on the pitch. It has offered next to nothing for the bowlers from the very moment that England won the toss and elected to bowl first.
England have to force the issue. New Zealand lead this two-match series and have to do no more than draw at Seddon Park.
At the close of play on the second evening, Stuart Broad explained England’s plan to bat once – and bat big – before looking to bowl out their hosts for a second time on the final day, as New Zealand did to them at Mount Maunganui.
That debacle, of course, was as much down to fairly flimsy batsmanship as it was reliant on the break-up of the surface. Importantly, the major change to the Tauranga wicket was in the sharp spin it began to offer late on the penultimate day, when Mitch Santner took three quick wickets.
England have opted for five seamers here, with only Joe Root and Joe Denly to offer spin options. As it happens, Jack Leach has spent the last day in hospital with gastroenteritis, so had he kept his place, the tourists may well have found themselves without an available spinner in any case. Matt Parkinson is part of the squad, but has been restricted to 12th man duties.
New Zealand took the wickets of Ben Stokes and Zak Crawley late on
Therefore, I guess England have two options – seek a 200-run lead as per New Zealand in the first Test, inspired by BJ Watling and Santner’s hundreds, or opt for a bold declaration nearer parity and look to bowl New Zealand out, before gambling on a final-day chase.
The placid nature of the surface, in truth, means that neither of these outcomes are necessarily likely to provide a result either way. Scoring at any significant rate has proven difficult – as New Zealand showed during a passage of play in the afternoon when they hid the ball outside Burns’ off-stump.
It has, however, begun to show occasional signs of uneven bounce. That, surely, should make England’s thinking clearer. 106 runs behind going into the fourth day, whatever England choose to do, they'll have to do it fast.
England's day in one sense, but New Zealand's, perhaps, in the context of the game.
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