Why England legend Root is so effective in Asia

Another day, another hundred, another Joe Root bat raised towards his cheering team-mates.

Set the stage and more often than not the England legend will take his opportunity to further burnish a record that marks him out as one of the greats of the modern game.

This week he has trod the boards at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, hitting two half-centuries and an unbeaten 111 as England completed a rare one-day international series win.

In doing so, Root reaffirmed his position as one of the greatest non-Asian players in sub-continental conditions.

His 247 runs in the series saw him become England’s highest ODI run-scorer on the continent, surpassing Kevin Pietersen.

He now has 1,813 ODI runs in Asia at an average of 53.32, with three hundreds and 15 half-centuries.

Here, BBC Sport looks at why he is so successful in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Root’s position as one of the all-time greats is hardly news to the cricketing public.

Yet perhaps an underappreciated aspect of his game is his talent in handling spin and the sub-continental pitches that assist slower bowlers.

While England have often floundered on tours of Asia, Root has frequently flowered.

He now sits third on the list of non-Asian ODI run-scorers against spin in Asia with 1,118 at an average of 69.87, behind only Jacques Kallis (1,151) and Ricky Ponting (1,330).

“Joe’s playing of spin is absolutely fantastic because he’s able to manoeuvre the ball,” former England batter Dawid Malan told BBC Sport.

“It’s different challenges, batting in the sub-continent. Wickets vary from ground to ground.

“The last wicket they played on, it turned square, it was incredibly slow. And today, it didn’t turn as much and was a better wicket to play on.

“You have to adapt game by game. Joe’s found ways to do that, to take over and score at a run a ball consistently. He’s done that in all the conditions he’s played in.”

Unsurprisingly, it’s not just in Asia that Root has prospered against spin.

Of all the players to score more than 3,000 ODI runs against slow bowling alone, the 35-year-old currently averages 73.43 – only India great MS Dhoni has a better average.

Indeed, Root has averaged more than 80 against spin in eight calendar years of his ODI career, emerging with a figure of 202.5 in 2017, 101.25 in 2018 and 206 from his first three matches this year.

Those runs have been built steadily, with a distinct lack of risk – of the players in the 3,000-run club against spin, only Virat Kohli in the last 20 years betters Root’s false shot record of 9.2%.

While many modern players will try to blaze their way through an ODI innings, it’s Root’s steady accumulation that marks him out.

Over the course of his 188 ODIs, Root has taken 3,566 runs in singles, frequently turning over the strike to ensure his side aren’t bogged down.

His ability to find gaps means his non-boundary strike-rate is 60.10, the best of any batter in the format’s history.

“Root’s dot-ball percentage is incredibly low, which is something I found I had to learn playing in the sub-continent,” added Malan.

“If you can rotate the strike really well, you’ll never feel like you’re under pressure.

“If you feel like you get two, three or four dot balls before you hit a boundary, you feel like you’re always having to take a high-risk option.

“Joe seems to find a lot of ways, whether it be with these reverse or deflections or playing off the back foot really well against spin, to score pretty quickly.”

Root also brings calm on his arrival to the crease, as he did on Tuesday when England slipped to 40-2 just after the powerplay.

He put on 126 to build a platform with Jacob Bethell, who hit a refined 65, before sharing an unbroken 191 partnership with Harry Brook.

In his 18 ODI innings since the start of 2024, Root has been dismissed just three times in the first 20 balls of his innings.

The former England Test captain averages 99 in that early phase of his innings, the best for any full member batter in the world.

Just two weeks after a 4-1 Ashes humiliation, the majority of England’s squad who dragged themselves to Sri Lanka might not have savoured the prospect of three one-day internationals in challenging conditions.

Played when other nations have already started their preparation for the T20 World Cup, this trio of fixtures felt like another maddening quirk of a packed international schedule.

Yet England will now appreciate they had the chance to move on from their trip down under.

Root and Brook, who struck 136, enjoyed their time at the crease, and the pair now have the most ODI runs as a partnership for England since 2023 with 672 at an average of 44.80.

“Batting first in the sub-continent is incredibly tough because you never know what a good score is,” added Malan.

“You have to assess the wicket and that’s where partnerships become so important. If you can have a partnership of 100-plus, it enables you to go deeper into the innings and be able to attack the ball when it does get older.”

The Brook-Root partnership played out in that exact manner, with the England skipper accelerating dramatically as England scored 130 off the last 10 overs, having set a platform in the middle overs.

Root, who has not played a T20 international since 2019, can now head home having helped his side turn a corner after a brutal time in Australia.

Meanwhile, Brook’s charges turn their eyes to the World Cup in the shortest format with a greater sense of hope.