But the chances of getting away with it against Bumrah,who attacks the stumps and never bothers with hanging the ball outside off stump? Remote. And especially for a batsman who is not on song as Root is,after being dismissed by Bumrah twice in his previous Test and eight times in their previous 12 Tests.

Was Root not watching when Ollie Pope tried to do exactly what Root attempted? And Pope was seeing it like a football,on 196 at the time in the Hyderabad Test. If Pope,on fire,could not reverse-scoop Bumrah,and ended up with splayed stumps,did that not feed into England’s data analysis for this series?

Root’s attempt to re-invent himself and play funky shots stems from pure motives:he wants to do what is best for the team,and “buying into” the overall strategy has appeared to him to be the most unselfish thing. But Bazball,if that is the correct way to define the approach of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum (which is debatable),has never been about the feckless,uncalculated taking of risk.

Duckett has opened up a new style of Test match batting,yes,but,crucially,after having practised his sweeps and reverse-sweeps all his professional career. His breathtaking strokes are not high-risk because they are ingrained in him,his reflexes controlled. Root has to depart from his traditional game,which has served him for a decade,in order to play his ramps and scoops,which will therefore work sometimes but not so often as when Duckett plays them. A big difference in degree when it matters most,with a Test series in the balance.

Another illustration of Root’s state of mind is his slip-fielding. He is standing far wider as sole slip for the spinners than convention dictates. Why? Presumably because he wants to cover a wider area for the sake of his team. But cricket does not work like that. Convention is convention because it has worked.

And thus we have seen Root miss two slip catches in this series that would have gone straight to him had he been standing in the orthodox position but which he had to lunge to his left for and missed. One was pivotal,in India’s first innings of this third Test,when Rohit Sharma edged Tom Hartley. India would have been reeling at four down had Root not tried to re-write the script.

In the annals,the worst or most stupid shot was always reckoned to be the sweep shot by Brian Close in the Old Trafford Test of 1961 when the Ashes were there for the regaining. Richie Benaud was bowling round the wicket into the rough. England were 1-150,chasing 256,and collapsed.

Close,as a left-hander,was castigated for trying to sweep Benaud’s leg-breaks that were landing in the rough outside his off stump. The West Indies captain Frank Worrell (soon to be Sir Frank) was a neutral onlooker,and in his column forThe Observer wrote:“His tactics were totally incomprehensible,the technique that of a captain giving his leg slips practice on the eve of a Test match. A more unorthodox exhibition will surely never again be seen in Test cricket. This was the turning point of the game.”

Close,of course,was never lost for words. Looking down from above at Bazball,he would say that he should not have swept Benaud,he should have reverse-swept him.

Pope has an entry too in the list of worst shots ever played by an England Test batsman,when England were on top of Australia at Lord’s last year and Nathan Lyon had just limped off. But Pope learned from his mistake. He has been given a second chance and made the most of it. Root is old enough to have known better.

The Telegraph,London

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