‘Joe root battling identity crisis’ reports Telegraph

‘Joe Root has 10,700 Test runs to his name and 28 hundreds but is having an identity crisis as he struggles to adapt to England’s new way of playing,’ says the start of an interesting article at Telegraph as Nick Hoult analyses the recent travails of Joe Root.
Root has been trying to bat aggressively than ever before – his strike rate has jumped from 52 to 81.2 in the recent times – but the run-flood has ceased. Since last August’s series against South Africa, he has averaged 22 with two fifties in 11 innings. Overall, in McCullum era, he averages over 50 but there were three hundreds in the first four games, which even Root had put down to the feeling of being liberated from the burdens of captaincy. From August on, a staleness has set in or as Telegraph puts it ‘identity crisis’.
Root has admitted he is figuring out how he should bat in the Stokes-McCullum set-up.
“For me I’ve just got to find out what sits best and it’s going to take some time. There was the initial relief of coming out of the captaincy and then now I’m just trying to find out what my role is within this team. It sounds silly having the experience I have but you want to be involved and want to be a part of it, you want to heavily contribute and I felt like I’ve not been able to do that the last few test matches,” he said. “In the recent past it’s a case of…the rhythms of the game, I’ve maybe got a bit caught up in it. But I’m not too far away from what’s given me success.”
England”s captain Ben Stokes, second right, leads his players from the field after defeating New Zealand on the fourth day of their cricket test match in Tauranga, New Zealand. (AP)
He got out playing a reverse-scoop in the first Test against New Zealand and found backing from the coach McCullum to keep playing it.
In a recent Wisden interview, Root had spoken about the shot – he has had success with it in the recent past.
“It was calculated, it was to get them to bowl both sides of the wicket, change their plans and in that middle session, force the game. You take calculated risks. I’ve got where I’ve got to trusting my gut. It just didn’t quite work out, I just sort of middled the edge of it,” he said. “It’s not going to stop me playing it, maybe just be smarter about playing it, having played it once, maybe look at my movements. It’s now part of my Test game and I’ll continue to utilise it when it’s the right time.”

Root played in the UAE T20 league recently, and was signed Rajasthan Royals for the 2023 IPL, his first.
“I’ve not performed for a little while, so I had the bit between my teeth in the second innings and it’s given me a little sharpener, a kick up the backside, that this is how I need to play my cricket…how I can be consently useful in this group,” he said.