‘I fancy a reverse scoop six first ball’ - Stuart Broad reveals Joe Root’s game plan for Day 4 of first Ashes Test

Known as a Test specialist, former England skipper Joe Root stunned the cricketing world with an attempt to reverse scoop Pat Cummins in the very first ball of Day 4 in the ongoing first Test of Ashes 2023. Notably, the cricketer has adapted England’s ‘Bazball’ philosophy well and is playing an aggressive brand of cricket in Test cricket, which wasn’t his natural game for a long time. Meanwhile, even though he failed to make any sort of connection in the first attempt, Root didn’t give up.

In the second over of the day, the cricketer once again tried something similar but this time, the result went in his favour. He hit Scott Boland for a six and then a four as skipper Pat Cummins was eventually forced to change his field set. Meanwhile, after the completion of the day’s play, veteran England pacer Stuart Broad revealed that Root planned about the same before even going to bat, and even though he was hesitant at one point, he didn’t change his mindset.

“The intent from ball one was pretty clear. I sit next to Rooty in the change room, actually, and he said, ‘I fancy a reverse scoop six first ball’ and I said to him ‘If it’s in your gut, you’ve got to go for it, that’s what we’re all about’. And he went, ‘Ah, I’ll decide when I’m walking out’ – so obviously he didn’t change his mind,” Broad said while talking to SkySports.

For our leading batter to show that intent is powerful: Broad

Broad also revealed that the dressing room was thrilled to see Root, one of the leading batters of England in Test cricket playing such a fearless brand of cricket. The cricketer also opened up about Brendon McCullum’s message to them, where the latter asked them to get out on long on rather than getting out while defending.

“That sort of intent just made us all smile in the changing room. It’s such a powerful thing for our changing room to know that one of our best batters is playing that fearless style.

“What Baz (Brendon McCullum) says to us is he’d sort of prefer us to get caught at long on than out defending. for our leading batter to show that intent is powerful. And the third over of the day you’ve got the third man back out of the slip and you’re sort of on front foot straight away,” Broad added.