After 17 long years, England has finally made the trip to Pakistan for a three-match Test Series. The first test is presently taking place in Rawalpindi, and both teams have put on incredible batting performances on a ground that has received harsh criticism for being excessively flat. Another incredible batting display was seen on the fourth day of the Test Match, this time from renowned England batsman Joe Root.
In an astonishing moment, Joe Root, who had already reached his half-century, swept the ball while batting with his left hand rather than his right during an over from Pakistani leg spinner Zahid Mahmood who was bowling around the wicket. Root most likely did this to offset the leg spinner’s angle when bowling around the wicket. Despite the batsman’s vigorous sweep of the ball, he only scored a single.
Pakistan Cricket Twitter shared the video:
The Twitterati were also quite interested in this spectacular performance since they could not believe what they had just seen.
South African leg spinner Tabraiz Shamsi tweeted, “I can’t play the sweep shot even while batting right-handed, and here’s Joe Root casually playing it perfectly batting left-handed… IN A TEST MATCH! Incredible.”
Another user tweeted, “Joe Root batting left-handed because the pitch is too easy to bat on.”
Here are some hilarious reactions:
Joe Root scored 73 runs off 69 balls in the second innings before being dismissed by the same Zahi Mahmood. In the first innings, England scored a staggering 657/10, which was nothing short of a record. The Three Lions scored this amount, which was a Test Match record. They became the first team to surpass 500 runs on the first day of a test match with as many as four batsmen scoring centuries.
Pakistan’s response was similarly impressive, but they were all out for 579 runs, giving England a 78-run advantage. The hosts would have a difficult time chasing down the Three Lions, who now hold a 342-run lead in the second innings
