Sport

Joe Root makes IPL debut 11 years after playing his first T20, Twitter reacts

May 7, 2023
Bharat Times

After a long wait, England star Joe Root finally made his Indian Premier League debut for Rajasthan Royals against Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 7, 2023 in Jaipur. Despite going unsold in the previous IPL auction, Root re-enrolled himself and was eventually bought by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 1 crore in quick succession.

Root’s interest in playing the IPL was motivated by the upcoming ODI World Cup to be held in India in October-November. After coming to India, he spent time with the team but did not get a chance in the first 10 matches of IPL 2023. However, Rajasthan Royals were forced to make changes to their XI after two consecutive defeats, and Root was named in the playing XI. XI for the first time.

Rajasthan Royals made a number of changes, bringing in Root and Murugan Ashwin while dropping Jason Holder and Adam Zampa. Interestingly, their premier left-arm pacer Trent Boult was not included in the substitutes, with Sanju Samson citing some injuries in the squad.

Despite losing two matches on the Rajasthan Royals spree, they were still in the top 4 of the IPL 2023 points table with 10 points from 10 matches. Root expressed his excitement about his upcoming Ashes and Test summer in England but is completely focused on IPL 2023, speaking to boost the morale in the Rajasthan Royals camp ahead of the crunch match in Jaipur on Sunday.

“I’m obviously very passionate about playing for England. It was a dream to play just one Test match, let alone so many. What’s to come in the year ahead. But now I have my hands full and I’m Enjoying what’s happening here,” Root said.

Root’s IPL debut was highly anticipated, and fans were eager to see how he would perform in the T20 format. On the other hand, Sunrisers Hyderabad, who were struggling, made a significant change after a series of failures by dropping Harry Brook and replacing him with Glenn Phillips for the crucial match against Rajasthan Royals.

Rajasthan (Playing XI) – Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (C/WK), Joe Root, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murugan Ashwin, Sandeep Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Impact players named by Rajasthan – Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag, Jason Holder, Obed McCoy and Adam Zampa.

Hyderabad (Playing XI) – Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram (c), Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Glenn Phillips, Abdul Samad, Marco Johnson, Vivrant Sharma (in place of Mayank Agarwal), Mayank Markande, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan .

Impact players named by Hyderabad – Harry Brook, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Dagar, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Sanveer Singh.