India v England: Joe Root shows a touch of Graham Thorpe in the way he plays India's spinners Presented with his cap by Paul Collingwood before play, he did a passable impression of England's stalwart No6. That was what the situation demanded. He managed to make a decent forward stride towards the ball, but still ensured that his bat was out in front of the pad rather than alongside it, which can produce bat-pad chances, and he did not appear frustrated by the endless sequence of dot balls. Neither did he remain completely in his shell. A hint of England's senior batting coach Graham Thorpe was visible in his play. Thorpe was always busy at the crease against spin, focusing on his "short game," to borrow a golfing term, maintaining a tempo with little pushes for ones and twos. He particularly liked to skip back on to his stumps - almost chest-on to the bowler - and nudge the ball into the leg side. The shot is played very late, when the ball is already inside the crease. It is a bit like French cricket. Root excelled in this area. He looked nimble and had good command of the angles required to push the ball into a gap. It must have been this skill, evident in his recent century for the performance squad in Mumbai, that won him selection ahead of Bairstow. As with batting against fast bowling, it is vital to be able to score off the back foot, even just in singles. It forces the spinner to bowl fuller and then you can step out to drive. Just 20 runs later he lost Kevin Pietersen after his 3½ hours of abstinence. Now England were in quite a pickle. But Root stuck to his game plan with Prior, absorbing the pressure and then calmly alleviating it with neat strokes on both sides of the wicket. Gradually the shoulders relaxed and a bit of self-expression emerged, in the shape of a deft reverse paddle for two from Ravichandran Ashwin bowling round the wicket. This was pure Thorpe, whose batting average in Asia (48) was better than his overall figure. As usual it is hard to tell what is a good score on this pitch until both teams have batted on it, but given its lifeless nature and the grim struggle for runs, most of the hunched shoulders will be amongst the paying public.