I enjoy playing in India, it suits my style: England’s Root happy to return to form as Afghanistan tie looms

England’s best batter in the longer formats, Joe Root, is happy to return to form as his side gears up for their third World Cup 2023 match in Delhi against Afghanistan on Sunday. The Test veteran has made the right noises since adapting to the Bazball-style cricket, playing reverse scoop sixes in the red-ball format and now in the ODIs.

But, heading into this World Cup, Root was terribly out of form, hitting 39 runs in four outings against New Zealand during the home series. Desperate to find the middle of the bat, Root cut short his rest period to train with England’s second-string squad preparing for the Ireland series. He would have even played the first One-Dayer, had it not been about rain.

However, considering he would be in India for the next one and a half months for the World Cup, Root remained confident of finding form. Given his record in this part of the world, where he averages over 50 in both Tests and T20Is and has eight ODI fifties, Root admitted to be peaking at the right time.

Even during England’s two matches in this World Cup 2023, Root was among the runs – scoring 77 against New Zealand in the tournament’s curtain-raiser in Ahmedabad and hitting 82 off 68 balls against Bangladesh in Dharamsala, adding 151 with centurion Dawid Malan. Ironically, his first boundary in that game was a reverse-scoop six.

‘Enjoy playing in India’

"I do enjoy playing cricket in India," Root said ahead of Afghanistan in match Delhi. "It suits my game quite nicely… It's something that's nice to have in the bank when you come to a tournament like this: knowing you've done well previously gives you a little bit of confidence."

Having played enough cricket at the top level to know when to hit the right strings, Root said, "You want to have a lot of runs going into it… but it's about turning up when it matters. In the crux of the tournament, that's when you need to really deliver.

"When you get here and you're in that tournament mentality - 'this is what it's about, this is where you stand up and deliver' - it's a different frame of mind. That's really helped me coming out here, giving real focus to what we're doing. It's been nice to contribute in the first couple of games,” Root added.

Meanwhile, with one win and a loss in two matches, England sits in the fifth position on the points table with two points (at +0.553 NRR).

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