Joe Root is the best batsman in all 3 formats: Mohammad Yousuf

Former Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf has rated England batting star Joe Root as the best batsmen across all three formats of the game. Root has been in great form over the last couple of years and his ability to adapt across different formats makes him a world class batsman.

Root scored 254 runs in the first innings of the ongoing Test match against Pakistan at Manchester. He also remained unbeaten after scoring a 48-ball 71 in the second innings to take his side to a winning position in the Test match.

“He is the best batsman in all three formats of the game. His balance, his shot selection and his timing all work well together and his double hundred against Pakistan at Old Trafford was a gem of an innings,” Yousuf said on Monday.

“Root has been around for just a few years but already his batting averages in all three formats speaks for his class,” he added.

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He also said that there no doubt about the class of Virat Kohli or AB de Villiers but in his personal opinion Root is number one. “I have always said that if a batsman can be successful at Test level he can be successful in any format. I think the way Root or the others get runs consistently it proves my point,” he pointed out.

The former batsman feels that the reason for Pakistan’s batting failure is because they were searching for specialist batsmen for different formats and the batsmen found it hard to cope with the pitch since it has some bounce and movement.

“I think our batsmen find it difficult to cope whenever the pitch has some bounce and movement. The pitch prepared for the second Test in Manchester is good for batting and England showed this with their big totals,” he said.

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He said that quality batsmen will not be happy with either 50 or 100, rather he should be dominating the bowlers. “Our batsmen has struggled because of the bounce and the fact that most of them are not trying to dominate the bowlers. A quality batter just does not hang around to get 50 or 100 he should be dominating the bowlers in his innings the way Root did in both innings,” he concluded.