UK Sport

Joe Root and Moeen Ali starred with the bat for England as they took full control of the first test against India, finishing 311-4. Coming off the back of a first test loss to Bangladesh, most pundits didn't give England much of a chance in this series, despite their recent record in India. But after Alistair Cook won the toss and elected to bat first, Root and Ali cashed in to leave England in a strong position at the close of play. Joe Root celebrates his century. Root, returning to the country where he made his test debut, scored his first test century in the sub-continent with 124, pulling England back from 102-3 after Cook, Haseeb Hameed and Ben Duckett had all fallen cheaply. However a partnership worth 179 with Moeen Ali, who finished the day unbeaten on 99, took England to a strong position where they can be confident of scoring over 400 in their first innings. India could have left England in a much worse situation, having dropped Cook twice...

What's happened to Joe Root?

Three years ago, Joe Root was sauntering into the record books as one of England’s greatest ever red ball players, but after another overseas innings defeat as captain, his record could be in danger of being tarnished. There’s no denying the talent that he possesses. 16 hundreds and over 7000 runs cover that, it’s just that since taking over from Alistair Cook there’s been in a steady decline. Not the first and most certainly not the last England captain to suffer this fate, his is one of the starkest – averaging 13 runs less in his 34 Tests in charge than the 53 he had under the stewardship of Cook before him. In this first test at Mount Maunganui it took him 20 balls to get off the mark in the first innings, not a hallmark of the typically fluent Yorkshireman, before nicking off a ball later, it happens. Root is an experienced player now. Only Ross Taylor has played more games than him from the 22 that took the field. He has been in these positions before and should have...

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