Can Joe Root catch Sachin's Test runs? | Final Word Daily

it is the final word England Sri Lanka daily Adam Collins with you can ponson be with me he was at Lords he's now at home we're here for West London Westfield Stratford City more extra less ordinary he mate Gus ainson still batting tell us about the day in 30 seconds it's 358 for7 England sent into bat by Sri Lanka who won the toss and in beautiful conditions said you know what we're going to have a roll and at 216 for six you thought you know what sh for fair play you've got this right we were wrong we're the idiots but a Joo century and a gus Aon 74 knocked out and Counting means that England finished day one in the driving seat and ahead at the end of day one perfectly summed up inside 30 seconds perhaps for the first time ever with you co-hosting this show cam you're you've normally got the brats about you with these things um so route 143 his 33rd test Century he's 16th since the start of 2021 where he's converted wonderfully compared to I iose the Affliction he had before if you can even call it that of getting to 50 and and not going on quite so often he's the very opposite of that these days and England are better for it but why don't we start at the end of the day with the the imposing partnership building between Gus Atkinson and Matty pots with Atkinson 74 pots on 20 they've completely neutralized any advantage that Sri Lanka may have extracted through the middle portion of the day second new ball when root Falls at 308 you feel like well you know that's a 70 78th over if they go bang Bang there there's a world where they Bowl evening instead atson I mean you've seen him back as well than most tell me about the way like what was Gus like when he was playing twos give us a sense of the of the did you ever foresee him being a chance to make a test ENT Lords uh again um very very awkward to to talk on talk about your close relationship with someone who's left you on Blue ticks so it's fine we always need to always need caveat it but he um he was always kind of meant to he everyone knew he was much better than everyone else and so but he was always predominantly a bowler naturally his batting Talent was kind of there as well I think he scored like a first team 50 in a friendly when he was like 15 or something like that right but if he wasn't at sori the whole point is that he'd be wanting to be an out and out round of batting a seven or trying to even push that in the top six and just be that kind a complete player as it happens he always bats nine forari sometimes as low as 10 he might have even been at 11 but I don't even know if he's bed as high as eight this is to be honest ainson at eight with wokes at seven feels potentially one too high but if it was Jamie Smith at seven it feels like it could be okay nevertheless This was meant to be England's like soft underbelly like okay it's 210 for six can they crack on but Gus has this in him and not from me having seen him play as a 17y old but seeing him play for sur it was a match last year where he started slug sweeping SE it was Michael Hogan it start dumping into him into the stands at the oval and I spoke to him a week or so after that and I was like where did you have you practiced that and he's like May I've genuinely never played that shot in my life I just fancied it in the moment so he's a wonderfully talented batter and when he scores his runs it'll be like today where he's gone a basically a runner ball five fours four sixes so it's fun basically Gus with the bat fun Gus with the ball fun give him loads of IPL deals and loads of money so he's got hand ey as they say uh when correct when summarizing um just to go through the other notable numbers of the day Ducket made 40 before an outrageous shot that got him dismissed just before the lunch interval uh we saw Harry Brook have his front pad blown off for 33 nice piece of balling from AA Fernando Jamie Smith 21 was the only other score above 20 until pots made 20 knot out late in the day so it was lopsided with the root Century uh cam the way that root has just slaughtered in an absolute Banker for like 1.5 centuries per series if you know what I mean like he he doesn't perform every week no one does but it's very rare that he does not make does not make an impression on any series that he plays in now and I'm always drawn to this conversation Daniel and I had it earlier in the summer about where he might finish statistically and all the rest of it but right now it's been in the post captaincy Joo era where he has numerically at least been his most productive which is kind of weird given the last year he was Captain he was outstanding as well yeah I had to kind of check myself for a bit today because I had to remember that this was amazing to watch it's so routine we we're so used to seeing Joe root bat and CH it's the same with the James Anderson effect in that I often didn't really value Jam Anderson enough because he was s such a relentlessly consistent performer and a someone who kind of clings onto moments as opposed to the pole I kind of was like okay James Anderson it's same with joeo today where he was just better than everyone else this wasn't this most amazing Century people aren't going to go look back in years to come and be like bloody can you remember when he got 140 against Sri Lanka at Lords but it was a perfect example of just his overriding and Lasting quality this was a day where England were 200 for six this was a day where they'd been sent into bat ultimately this was a bowling day or set up to be a bowling day and he was the one player until Atkinson had his fun later on who kind of stood up in the batting lineup to save England feels too strong but when you're 210 for six and one BLS on 100 of them like it doesn't actually feel that too far away from being an accurate statement it was a day of Joe cliches you look up he's on 30 he's turning the strike over he looked ever so comfortable apart from when he was on 99 and that was kind of the real moment of of Jeopardy in the day yeah I mean it's it's the zzman stat from TMS where he was converting one in every 450s and then since 2021 one in every other 50 and and look at nearly came AC Cropper on 99 there was a a fair bit of activity there near run out bit else going on before he actually Advanced the three figures but uh yeah the root career Arc is a wonderful one to follow and he looks like he's playing with such joy as well when he brought up the sentury today there's no history onics it's it's pretty as you say it's kind of like routine and I think that's the almost the nicest thing you can say about him that he's hit 33 test hundreds and who knows where he might be at the end there's every reason to think 145 test matches he pulled level with alist Cooks today there's no reason why he can't finish his career with you know 40s something test h which would be a staggering achievement especially if he goes on to play 200 test matches and the tendulka overall runs record feels within Striking Distance as well well it's literally more routine for him to score test 100 than any other English player in history other than aliser cook he he went past cook for the most runs ever scored in England uh this match he tied him for 33 test centuries he yeah he he's playing against spin I think something that people don't appreciate when they watch the best batters play against Spinners How much how more often they play Spinners from length off the back foot than everyone else does and so when Jia is bowling to him and he's basically just Landing it on a length at 50 miles hour Dr is standing in his crease and just taking a step back and picking him off he's got so much time and that was what was really exciting or quite bizarre in that when he got to 99 he was on 99 for 12 balls and it was zzman to get another name check and he's on the show tomorrow three in a row um he' never been on 99 for more than five balls previously in his test career and this time he was on 99 for 12 deliveries he faced an entire Maiden from uh kamaru and then tooken basically another kind of six balls against G it was all it was all happening it was bizarre it was a bizarre moment where you were thinking how this is so out of keeping with his Innings and it was quite nice in a way because although there were no historyonics when he made his three figures I like the idea of when Elite Sports people still get nervous or they somehow change in one way or another when an intangible thing is is up for grabs basically and that was the kind of human human element of his of his Innings today and then so I would go at our other mate and friend of the show Ben Jones I wanted to ask him Crick viz when was the last time Joe rot faced 12 balls in a row was it this Innings when was it and he couldn't he didn't have an answer he said I can't I can't find that for you so really Crick VI get him gone I so I love them please keep employing me I think it's the sort of thing where if you send a little WhatsApp to Andrew Samson it's the sort of thing he might be able to to dig out for you you know with your with your um tennis background and by that I mean when you were a ball kid at wion you would have seen many tennis players reach match point and or Championship point and it takes them six or seven or eight it was analogist to what we saw from root today interested that you picked up on that that stash that he was having with prup gria through the through the duration of his long spell especially after lunch the most of the most of the the period of play that I was able to watch in depth was that where Jo surria has extraordinary control uh and finger Spinners are meant to at that level but the the deliberate approach that he makes to the crease the fact that he almost stops before bowling it clearly enhances how much control that he has he doesn't rely too much on dip or prodigious turn although we did see a couple turn Square last week at Old Trafford it's varying his pace and that root is so so equal to it that he's able to adjust in his crease played one Sterling sweep shot early on off him which you know me Immortals are probably finding it hard to even reach that but he's middling it CL clattering it down the slope towards the tavern stand and you this is the an exercise in experience and confidence and and G Serio might be I think he's in his 18th test match an unlikely test career but he's already one of the best finger Spinners in the world that was no that was no beist event today that was two serious guns up against each other cha that that bloke's taking Club wickets till he's 80 he doesn't move he just bowls off one step and like just lands it on the spot and it's like fizzing away I think it's like half the balls he I'm very statistically minded today I've just been overloaded by information it was like half the balls he bow today were hitting the stumbs and an example of brot's kind of dominance over him eventually was he swapped over to bowling left arm over and it was rubbish it was so just he like started dropping short a bit and brout was just kind of like swatting him through Square leg Ball but until that moment they had this kind of wonderful kind of battle going on where I do think rot was kind of winning out on the whole but J R yeah I he I do I do want to add though play this is my most strongly held opinion that I know is incorrect so I think if you bowl left arm finger Spin and you're not a professional cricketer you're a failure why are you ever bowling a bad ball but you have control you're turning it away from the bat why there's you should never bowl a bad ball ever so what I'm actually saying is Gia bang average and um everyone be as good as him yeah if only you and I could both the left-handers all the time it would be a different life I me I know you B around the Wicket anyway but in fact R was up up at me earlier when I was in the living room trying to um trying to work out whether I could bowl like jauria I was imitating his run up I'm like can I just can I just like walk in and stop at the crease could I do that might I try that tomorrow when I play a game uh I'm playing over in I don't know somewhere in the west country tomorrow against Andy C's old Club game will I try that on out there who's tonight maybe I will let's go to the start of the day before we um go back to Hall of Fame and all the rest of it um it was the Kumari introduction that picked up Dan Lawrence within I think it was four deliveries the extra yard that he brings whenever he plays he's always going to be up and at you picked up a wicket early picked up a wick with short Ball but I mean I understand the logic behind why Lawrence has played this series and I'm not going to question the rationale behind getting him in having spent so much time on the sidelines but I do feel for him a little bit as well like I wish that Lawrence just got his chance to bet at six in a way I wish Cox played this series and that they went with a more conventional lineup with one F bowler and that Lawrence was walking out at number six today and getting the chance to dominate a slightly older ball in the end England didn't quite get that right today Smith fell relatively early Wes was out inside the first 10 minutes after getting to the crease I would have loved to have seen Lawrence in that situation and not being asked to do a roll that isn't completely foreign to him it's not like he's never done it when he played for ess6 but it's been a long time since he's been a first class opener now doing it at test level it isn't giving him shall we say the best chance to dominate no it's not and like Lawrence isn't meant to score low of runs here that's not the game if if Lawrence scores loow of runs here England have a test situation that they had with the white B of Davin Milan where it was like we don't actually want to pick this guy in this position but they're putting miles into the legs if if Lawrence can go fine in the remaining three Innings this allows them to not take an extra opener to Pakistan it means like we can just around with our Squad Lawrence can come in and B there if he needs to be and roll out some opies yes of course it's frustrating and not fair but as you said Lawrence started out as an opener like way back when I don't know how much he did professionally but he was that was kind of his role growing up he's B time it's not an alien position to him I think had Cox played you'd have had a bizarre scenario where Cox would have come in at at six for um Ben Stoke so it would have been whether you then swapped that back over and you said Cox actually it's your you as the Newbie have to open the batting because it'd be really unfair if you're Dan Lawrence and you've waited 16 matches for a go then they say can you open the batting and then the lad who's behind you in the pecking order gets the bat where you want about but um yeah I think I just think the Lawrence situation is going to work itself out and if he if he Nicks off three more times then they'll go right we might need to take Keaton Jennings or insert any other opener's name here um for p but hopefully I think England just hoping just get enough runs that we can use you as a substitute without being a long-term solution so for Sri Lanka AA Fernando picked up a couple it was quite a even day from their seers really like two for 84 two for 80 two for 75 and J Syria one for 81 with Kim Mendes bowling a few overs there with with the Elder ball so they they've got miles in the legs they bowled 88 overs they caught up on their overrate at one stage they bowled 27 overs by 158 so that said a lot a lot about the the majority of the the overs prob Jo surria baldw were after that mentioned before that Brooke got a good one from AA that was given out leag before on the ground and it was clipping therefore it went with umpire's call Root had the other side of it where he enjoyed the luck of it being given not out on the field and it was umpire's call that went with him so that's just a part of the game I suppose the two air quates failures um Pope interestingly again um I mean you could say that Ducket and Pope and Lawrence all contributed to the dismissals early on the first three to four for England but let's just go through them out of order why don't we start with Ollie Pope and where he's at because having taken the armband last week I mean he'd be desperate to make an impression in this series but yet to do so after three hits my heart dropped for Pope when he got out today because he's got out early enough and sillly enough that every journalist in the Press Box can go that's that's an easy 800 words easy story and Away you go it was a weird of those three dismissals like popes in my opinion is kind of way out in the in front in front Ben Ducket getting out reverse sweeping Ben Ducket sweeps everything so like happens whatever Dan Lawrence isn't an opener he's got out nicking off one like dragging outside off stum what do you expect is going to happen olle Pope in this kind of context of overall he is doing absolutely fine at number three again Ben Jones second name check of the day put this tweet out yesterday about um he's kind of averaging it's only like G and trot who've averaged more at number three than he has in that number of Innings and since he started the only people who averaged more than him or done better than him or in that position are labash Shan and Kane Williams like he's doing fine leave him alone but the problem with those numbers are when we're talking about averages is that he kind of Pick Pockets not pick pockets bookmarks his career with these like generational Innings AKA hydrabad 196 and so when the flip side comes around and he has this kind of frenetic when it's going badly busy when it's going well start and style to his Innings you can very quickly get very caught up in your own confirmation bias with po so today he's tried to pull a ball off a length and he's got himself in an absolute mess like if he gets that ball away you're like this is why you can't bow W poke because you can only you can bowl a length and he'll pick you off off the top of the stumps and whack you through midwicket as it happens he gets top Edge and it's it's not great it's bad yeah it was ugly and look I I I take it Point um you know leave OE alone like leave Britney Alone probably the first meme was that wasn't it years ago probably 2005 or probably before you were born agree means nothing to you leave Britney Al means nothing to you um but yeah I get it like I get the leave volley alone argument but I also understand why there's always one player in every top six Under Pressure I would have said it 50 times on this podcast over the years there's always one player in every top six and it just happens to be that the acting Captain is right now that guy and that's the way it goes sometimes so and that's okay because he'll get to number three three more times in the series and and then I go to Pakistan who we picked anyway he's the Vice Captain he's not getting dropped it's more that there's always scrutiny yeah on on on the way it's going for him and you look this um wash over the Ducket thing to a point because he does play The Sweep All Day still didn't feel to me like it had the most at some level at some part of you needs to think about the lunch break at that point do you not like at some deeper level and I know they don't think that way this isn't the way this team's hard wide but Mike you you know I love the way this England team play I've thought duckets returned to the test side over the last couple of years has been one of the most enjoyable things of the whole badb era and the confidence to play that he plays and and to um to come out the other side of last year during the ashes when the Aussies thought they had a walking Wicket and him having a big effect on the England WIS at um at Leeds and at the oval that's where they W wasn't it yeah leads in the oval and and playing other good Innings at Lords as well a couple of 80 odds but I do still think that at you got to look at the clock at some point and realize that balance of probability you are going to be a little bit fatigued getting 30 minutes of feet down something to eat plenty of fluids you're more likely to succeed after the break but it's improbable they will ever care too much about that cam we're going to take a break then we're going to go to the final word Hall of Fame the final word daily Adam Collins cam ponon be in London where this second test is being played and our coverage as always on this program is for Westfield London and Westfield Stratford city right let's see how we go here e l and N what do these three letters stand for X enemies Liam and N Ed giddens Liam plunet and Neil Fair brother well at Westfield London it stands for eat live and nourish the self-described world's most instagrammable Cafe that's a big call E Ln n is now open at Westfield London and if you like your fake foliage on the wall neon signage and more pink than a 40 something divorce Spotify algorithm you'll love this place enjoy breakfast lunch and dinner that'll drive your taste buds almost as wild as your social media followers will be with jealousy looking at your photo so it's called e and N I must say um cam um it's not really what I'm I'm across and um I I I I I appreciate the Oasis reference off the top I'm still thinking about whether I buy tickets or not I can't quite work that out whether that's the right thing for me to do or not I probably will I don't know how you feel about this absolutely have to go try yeah they're not without anyway we'll talk about Oasis probably on the weekly show at some point uh but e lnn it's it's a thing the world's most instagrammable Cafe no I think everyone else should go to this Cafe I I can safely say that I I I actually you reading it I was I hate this place I don't want to go there at all like like nourished I was like this isn't for me but I I think that you guys listening and watching should absolutely go because and then reference the final word and then then then we'll go yeah well Westfield London's the one that's out at Shephard's Bush so um maybe you've been out at carnival or something like that in West London this weekend you can you can take in some fluids you can take in some electrolytes e lnn Westfield London the taste of social media cam I can hear Winnie yelling for me downstairs it's this going to be a a final word nomination of the Hall of Fame for you then we'll get out of here Co very quick two for from me one that if Gus ainson gets 26 more runs tomorrow he'll be equal the record for the F least number of test matches be on both H his boards with L of two and that will equal the record with Ian bofam and vinu manad and second I love it there we go and then second one was quite a funny thing today when Dan Lawrence nicked off uh Dan Lawrence captain of London Spirit who of course play at Lords um he walked off in the direction of the dugouts before realizing where he was and peeled back round to the so that was a fun little tid yeah is that not a nice little vignette about the the nature of modern Cricket moving from franchise to test and the state of the game and the game as we now know it thank you Cam uh we'll be back tomorrow with you and Dy zzman that's gonna be fun and then it's Norcross back later in the week back from his holiday and and all the rest of it uh the only other thing I'll note in Hall of Fame Lords looked a little bit on the sort of empty side today did it not not empty empty but you know I'm know they sold out all these tickets Lawrence Booth was on the show with us in April in the wi cricketers Almanac this was sold out in October last year so I'm not blaming anyone but or or I'm not suggesting anything un wward but isn't it kind of interesting that even in a sellout circumstance that there are still tickets on day four apparently according to Nick Holt only 7,000 sold that is a knock on effect the market driver of basow is it not who would buy a 40 quid ticket or whatever the minimum ticket is these days to see day four of an England test right now that's that's not smart for anyone to do I don't think that's a very fair point hadn't thought about it that way and the only thing other thing I was going to say was the NIT C piece and 7,000 for day four so I've got nothing more to add yeah something to watch with this England team and keep an eye on as we go okay we've been here for Westford London Westfield statford City England in a commanding position thank you Cam we'll talk tomorrow bye