The best players adapt and score runs, Farbrace on Root
What's the story?
Interim coach of the English cricket team, Paul Farbrace, has confirmed that the outrageous possibility of Joe Root being dropped from the T20 side will not take shape. After the one-off T20I, there were calls for Root to be left out from the side when Ben Stokes returned from his injury layoff as a case of making room for the player more suited for the format, but Farbrace's statement ahead of the T20 series against India has ensured that logic and sanity prevailed.
In case you didn't know...
Root, who is these days looked on as a misfit in a dynamic T20 side, was the architect of one of England's greatest T20I victories when he smashed a 44 ball 83 at the Wankhede Stadium to help his team gun down South Africa's mammoth total of 229 in the group stage match of the ICC World T20 2016.
In the finals too, he top-scored with a 36 ball 54 when everyone else in the English side misfired on a rather slower pitch and then took out Windies' dangerous openers Chris Gayle and Johnson Charles in his very first over.
The heart of the matter
Farbrace assured Root's place in the side citing him to be an integral member of England's plans in the Twenty20 format, owing to his immaculate batting skills. Speaking on the selection dilemma, he said, "Absolutely. You need your best batsman, I can't believe anybody else in our set-up would argue against that. He is world-class in all forms of the game. You do need nous, and you do need people playing in different ways,"
"The best players adapt and score runs, whether it is 20 overs or 50 overs or Test match cricket, and he is without a doubt, one of the finest players in the world. He could go anywhere from three to six - and it is nice having that flexibility and that cool, calm head."
What's next?
Ben Stokes, whose return to fitness created this whole discussion in the very first place, will make his return from a hamstring injury he suffered during the second Test against Pakistan in June when he plays for Durham in their T20 match against Yorkshire at Headingley on July 5.
He will play as a batsman only as he pushes for a recall to the English side in the third and the final T20I in the much-anticipated series starting against India next week. England are on a hot streak and have not lost a single white-ball game all summer minus the shock loss to Scotland at the Grange where they were narrowly outplayed. After that, they went on to beat Australia in five ODIs straight and then a T20I.