Joe Root and Nick Compton provide more questions than answers to England Test opener spot In 20 minutes of batting before lunch, and another 35 afterwards, Root outscored Compton on his way to 24. But the introduction of first-change Shardul Thakur proved his undoing, the young Yorkshireman falling to the final ball of the seamer's first over when he played no shot at an inswinger and was lbw. The misjudgment was an occupational hazard for any opener, but not one which will fill Root or England with confidence that he is the man for the job at this stage. With him gone, however, it was hard to tell whether Compton was batting himself into a Test debut or out of one as he crawled to a teatime 33 from 98 balls. His mitigation was the need to eliminate risk with stakes so high after his previous two innings on tour had accrued just a single. No 3 Jonathan Trott was in no rush either, and the run rate was barely traceable as Thakur and medium-pacer Shoaib Shaikh bowled respective spells of 7-3-12-1 and 5-1-9-0. Nikhil Patil picked out mid-off when he tried to hit Monty Panesar (three for 64) over the top, and the frontline left-arm spinner had his third wicket when Thakur mistimed a slog-sweep and was well caught in the leg-side ring. The all-rounder then took the last two wickets in two balls, Kshemal Waingankar snapped up one-handed at second slip by a diving Trott and number 11 Javed Khan bowled slogging.