England batsman Joe Root faced a torrent of criticism on Saturday after being dismissed for a reverse scoop that led to England's collapse on the third day of the third Test against India.
Root tried to reverse the spearhead of India's pace in padel jasprit bumrah with a ball outside off stump at Rajkot, but missed and was caught at second slip, his last batting failure in the series.
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His departure on the 18th opened the floodgates for India, who started the day on the wrong foot with Ravichandran Ashwin's sudden departure from the match overnight to be with his ailing mother.
Cricketers and pundits said that former England captain Root, who has made more than 11,000 runs in 138 Tests, had failed in trying to fit into England's "Bazball" brand of attacking cricket.
"Joe Root's final Bazball shot is the stupidest in the history of English Test cricket," reads the headline of a scathing article by Telegraph cricket writer Scyld Berry.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan wrote in
England resumed the day at 207-2 but were bowled out for 319, giving India a huge lead of 126.
Ben Duckett top-scored with 153 and captain Ben Stokes scored 41 in his historic 100th Test, but the rest of the batting collapsed.
At the end of the day, India reached stumps at 196-2, ahead by 322 runs.
But Duckett defended Root's adventurous shot.
"I'd be interested to know if those people were against it when he did it to (Australia captain) Pat Cummins and hit him for six in the summer," Duckett told reporters.
"It's the same as playing a reverse sweep and getting caught at the point," he added. "That shot has been very successful for him over the past year, so next time he may miss."
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