Joe Root calls for tweaks in county game to bridge gap to Test cricket

England's captain believes that more could be done in the domestic game to prepare batsmen, spinners and seamers for the challenges of the Test arena

Scorecard: India v England

Joe Root has called on his teammates to learn from the challenges of the last month, while suggesting that tweaks to the domestic game could assist England’s Test side.

The visitors’ fate was sealed on Saturday as India spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel shared 10 wickets in a victory by an innings and 25 runs

After posting 578 in their first innings of the series, England didn’t pass 205 in their next seven efforts as the hosts took charge on surfaces that many in an inexperienced team were not used to.

“I think the guys have to embrace what's happened,” Root said, speaking after the final game of a gruelling winter Test schedule in Asia.

“They have to understand it and be realistic. There are areas we can get better at. We would be stupid to come away from this trip and say: ‘It was India, it was the extreme conditions, the ball was spinning and skidding on, and it was impossible to bat.’

“That would be the wrong attitude. The most important thing is that we need to come away from here and say: ‘You know what, there are lots of things that we can get better at.’

“Yes, India have world-class spinners and high performers at home in particular – but we can be better. What can we take away from this trip? I'm going to go away and make sure that if I find myself in this situation again down the line, on the next tour, I will be better equipped to deal with that.

“But I also think when we come home and play in our own conditions, we are a completely different side. We also have to look at this winter as a whole; there have been occasions – three very good performances when the ball has spun and we’ve dealt with it better.”

^{Joe Root has scored 794 runs in six Tests this year}

Unsurprisingly, given the way in which he began 2021, Root was England’s star performer; he made scores of 228 and 186 against Sri Lanka, before beginning the series in Chennai with 218 – a second double hundred in three weeks.

But after the captain, England’s next-highest run-scorer across the tour’s red-ball leg was Ben Stokes, who missed the Sri Lanka Tests and finished 591 runs behind Root. Dan Lawrence was the only other player to feature in more than one Test in India who finished with an average above 20.

Meanwhile, India's spinners made hay: between them, Ashwin and Patel – both of whom have enjoyed stints in English cricket – shared 59 wickets as 12.8 apiece.

And Root believes that more could be done in the county game to prepare players for the challenges of the Test arena – not only batsmen, but also spinners and seamers.

“I do think there are areas of county cricket that can be improved quite easily,” he explained.

“We need to find a way of making games last four days and we need to give spinners the opportunity to learn to bowl at different stages of the game – learn to hold the game in the first innings if it’s not spinning or not in your favour, giving the seamers a bit more respite in the first innings and then being able to attack and really deal with that pressure of trying to bowl a side out.

“But it's not just the spinners, it's also as a batting group and with the seamers. You want batsmen to come into Test cricket and have a wealth of knowledge of what it's like to go out in the second innings and have 450 on the board and be able to ignore that scoreboard pressure and be able to deal with that by putting it at the back of your mind.

“Go and get a score beyond that and make sure that you’re massively in the game going into the second innings.

^{Dan Lawrence reached his second Test fifty on Saturday}

“Same for the seamers – you want them to have a range of skills so that they can exploit a flat wicket that is not offering much.

“Can they change their angles? Can they go up and down the gears in terms of pace? Have they got five-over spells of short-pitched bowling in them? They are all things that will improve the game and Test cricket for England in the long run. If games go a bit longer it might make things a bit more boring, but it would mean making the draw a bit more of an option. If draws are more appealing in terms of how many points they are worth, it might improve that situation slightly.

“I understand I’m looking at that from a very selfish point of view as the England Test captain. I want guys to be able to walk into this Test team and find things a little bit more familiar when they come in. When that was the case in the county game and there were more draws around, look at the guys who came into that team - Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell, Matt Prior, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood.

“Off the back of it, they went into Test cricket averaging similar to what they averaged in county cricket. Granted, they were excellent players and it was a fine team, but can we speed that process up by getting it right in the tier below?”

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