Joe Root took his Test match batting to another level with a shot straight out of the T20 playbook to stun those watching.
Root might have scored more than 10,000 runs looking every inch the classical Test match batsman, but in his last two innings he has batted in a way that Keanu Reeve’s Neo might do if it was a skill uploaded for the Matrix.
There have been drives, flicks, sweeps and leaves of total control, but on the fourth morning at Trent Bridge, Root played a reverse scoop for six off Tim Southee that had to be seen to be believed. It was 16 years ago that Kevin Pietersen did something equally outrageous to Muttiah Muralitharan, before repeating the trick against Scott Styris a couple of summers later.
