England needed 332 runs to win at the start of the fourth day of the second Test against in Vizag on Monday (February 5). They had nine wickets in hand and given their attacking approach, it was very much possible.
It was not surprise that they were going for the chase and weren’t being defensive even on the third day. Joe Root had a massive role to play in the chase just like he had done around 18 months ago at home against the same team chasing 378 runs.
But this time around, the former England skipper was injured and hadn’t taken the field for the major part of the third day. But he came out to bat at the fall of third wicket and took the attack to the opposition reverse sweeping his first ball for four stunning Ravichandran Ashwin. He continued playing shots coming down the ground and raced to 16 off just nine balls. But the 10th ball prove to be his undoing as he top-edged one off Ashwin to go back to the pavilion.
But during his 10-ball stay, Root achieved a major career milestone completing 1000 Test runs in India becoming the fifth visiting batter to score as many runs. Clive Lloyd is on top in this aspect amassing 1359 runs in the format in India in 22innings.
India is considered one of the toughest places to score runs especially for the players from SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries and Root has certainly defied the odds with his exceptional batting over the years.