Nottingham: England middle-order batsman Joe Root has refused to blame his team's batsmen for the slump in the post-lunch session that saw them collapse from 134/1 to 202/7 handing India the advantage in the first Test at Nottingham.
The Yorkshire batsman then had to come up with a well-made unbeaten 78 putting on big partnerships with Stuart Broad and James Anderson to rescue his side.
“Our top order is quite good and they can have a perfect day mostly. Today wasn't a perfect day. When you go through a session like that, you need to react quickly and we didn't do that well enough today. So we need to learn from our mistakes and build on that,” said Root.
Root added 54 runs for the unbroken last wicket stand with Anderson (23 batting) to deny India a chance to bowl the hosts out on day three.
“Our top nine batsmen have Test hundreds. So they are not out and out specialist bowlers. They pride themselves in the way they can bat and it was great to see shift the pressure back on to India. They also took pressure off me and responded very well to the challenge,” he said.
“The tea-break meant that India couldn't carry their momentum forward on this pitch and then Broad came out and played attacking cricket and put the bowlers under pressure. Anderson and Liam Plunkett played bravely in the final session then and we were able to frustrate India,” he added.
