Joe Root is expected to be fit for batting when England will take field on Day 4 of the second Test against India, with an intent to chase 399-run target. England, who were at 67/1 at the close of Day 4, will hook their hopes on their star batter Joe Root, despite he spent the majority of Day 3 off the field tending to an injured finger.
Root sustained an injury to his right little finger during the eighth over of the day, when a delivery from James Anderson, following an edge from Shreyas Iyer, fell short of him. Root immediately experienced pain and was absent for a good part of the morning session. Subsequently, he did not make an appearance for the remainder of India's second innings.
Consequently, England found themselves short of a bowling option after delivering only two overs to commence the day's play. Nevertheless, they managed to dismiss India for 255 runs, thanks to the collective efforts of the relatively inexperienced spin trio of Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed, and Shoaib Bashir, who combined to claim eight wickets. This performance has limited England's target to 399 runs for victory in Visakhapatnam, with the aim of securing an improbable 2-0 lead in the series. As they resume their innings on day four, England stands at 67/1, with the dismissal of Ben Duckett attributed to Ravichandran Ashwin.
"His finger is not great," Anderson said in the post Day 3's press conference.
“He took a blow in training this morning and again on the field. It's just making sure that is as good as it can be for when he bats. Hopefully tomorrow he'll turn up at the ground and be OK to hold a bat. He was just making sure he could do everything he could to help us out in the second innings, just making sure it's as good as possible for tomorrow. There's a chance we will need him with the bat so it's making sure he can hold a bat,” Anderson added.
"I don't think there's concerns. It's making sure he's as good as he can be. There's no point risking it for an external blow, no point risking it further out in the middle, so it's making sure he's good enough to bat," England's pace legend concluded.
Since the injury affects the exterior of his finger, Root should be able to bat in his regular position at number four or five, as it stands now, following Rehan's promotion to bat at number three. At the end of the day's play, Rehan remained undefeated with 9 runs, while Zak Crawley was not out with 29 runs.
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