A masterclass from Joe Root, who is playing a different game

NICK FRIEND: This was a peerless, superlative effort in stifling heat on a surface beginning to behave in a way that all of an English persuasion feared it might. Only, it never appeared that way when he took guard

Nineteen Test hundreds but surely few as accomplished as this. Because when Joe Root bats as he has batted since touching down in Sri Lanka, he looks to be operating on a completely different plain.

For the most part, it felt as though he was immersed in a game so far removed from that of his colleagues that its entire coordinates would shift whenever the strike changed hands.

Such was the total sense of certainty of it all, his teammates could have been forgiven for watching on with a brewing inferiority complex. At one stage, the 144-year-old record held by Charles Bannerman for the highest percentage of runs in a team’s Test innings felt under increasing threat: when England’s captain brought up his landmark, his team were 157 for 4.

It is easy to get caught up in recency bias and become obsessed with the present, but with each passing sweep shot Root’s vigil – a lone hand at times – lifted itself further beyond reasonable comparison.

This was a peerless, superlative effort in stifling heat on a surface beginning to behave in a way that all of an English persuasion feared it might. Only, it never appeared that way when he took guard; rather, the captivation in his one-man show came from its near-constant serenity.

In the morning session, he had to watch Jonny Bairstow and Dan Lawrence fall to deliveries that landed in almost identical areas but responded oppositely: Bairstow succumbing on the inside edge, Lawrence on the outside to a near-perfect piece of slow-left-arm. And yet, Root stood firm, apparently unflustered. Standing firm might be too stoic a description: a misrepresentation of an exhibition in judgement, balance, mindset and wristwork.

^{Joe Root made centuries in back-to-back Tests for the first time}

Rather, he fiddled with Lasith Embuldeniya almost at will, fetching him from outside the off-stump when he overpitched and defending with such comfort that the best spinner in the series was rendered as impotent then as he appeared unstoppable earlier against England’s top order.

So much so that when he switched his angle of attack – or perhaps ‘angle of containment’ is more appropriate in this case – to come over the wicket, Root pulled his first ball for four and followed up with a magnificent switch-hit out of the rough. He could have been any of the great left-handers – Kumar Sangakkara or Andy Flower, suggested Rob Key on commentary at the time, as Root executed the stroke with perfection. Or Kevin Pietersen, whose century in Colombo nine years ago until this series was out on its own among the great hands played by England batsmen in Sri Lanka.

In the last fortnight, however, Root has played his cards: two spectacular displays in somewhat contrasting circumstances.

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The first, following a dire surrender from the home batsmen, was to set up a win and press home an already-held advantage. This one, surrounded by the inexperience of his charges in these conditions, was a captain’s show put together in the knowledge that the destination of the match rested almost solely on his shoulders.

He had never scored hundreds in back-to-back Tests before now, and the talk in the recent past has been of a player no longer among the trinity of Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson. But even the best in the world can carry on learning: Root admitted in the build-up to this series that he has spent time perusing YouTube for clips of his peers, and there were noticeable shades of Williamson in how late he made contact in defence.

Otherwise, Root just looked like Root: constantly smiling, rotating the strike and locating the gaps wherever they appeared. In the entire series, he has spent just 36.4 overs off the field, now holds three of England's four highest scores against Sri Lanka, became the first English batsman to rack up scores of 150 in successive Tests since Marcus Trescothick and in this innings has passed Pietersen, David Gower and Geoffrey Boycott on the all-time run-scoring list.

For my money, the best series performance by an Englishman overseas since Alastair Cook's heroics in India a decade ago. After 633 deliveries, he has been run out twice and dismissed just once by a bowler: throwing his bat with the last man in.

^{Root has hardly been off the field at any point in this series}

It emphasised something Michael Yardy told The Cricketer in a recent interview, during which he laid out his coaching philosophy to young batsmen.

“I think it’s really dangerous to see the best player in the world and go: ‘Right, I’m going to bat like him,’” he explained.

“Actually, if I had the opportunity to spend time with the best player in the world, I’d be asking how they tactically go about their game, how they think about the game, how they adapt, how they see different situations, how they go about setting up against different bowlers.”

It is an approach that England’s fledgling talent would do well to consider and these are questions they should be putting to Root; there could scarcely be a better role model for a young group of batsmen.

There has been plenty of talk about the techniques of Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley, both of whom have been hindered in this series by the angle of their bat-path. But the pair have proven themselves to be fast learners in their short international careers, and succeeding against spin on the subcontinent is the next challenge facing them.

Watching their captain from the balcony at Galle, they have had an ideal vantage point to witness a flawless blueprint.

The greatest compliment that Sri Lanka could pay was in the plan upon which they ultimately settled: to focus on Root’s teammates instead.