'He asked analyst to send every dismissal from last five years or so': Atherton on Joe Root's magical form

Day 3 of the second Test between England and India belonged to the host's skipper Joe Root, who stroked a masterful 180* to put England ahead in the match. This was Root’s fifth century in the season, the most by any England batsman in Tests. Former English skipper Mike Atherton was all praise for Joe Root and said the right-hander is reaping rewards for all the hard work he did in the lockdown.

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"I think this is a reward for some incredible work he did in lockdown. It came at a time when he was 29 and had already had a fantastic career," Atherton told 'Sky Sports'.

"But it just gave him an opportunity to rest, where he's said 'I've got the second half of my career to come and I can go from being a very, very fine player to one of the all-time greats'," he added.

Root also breached the 9000 run mark in Test cricket on his way to a great hundred. The skipper started the year with twin tons, one of which was a double hundred, in challenging conditions of Sri Lanka before stroking his second double hundred in Chennai against India.

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After a string of low scores in the remaining matches of the India tour, Root bounced back to hit two centuries in the first two games of the ongoing series. Atherton revealed Root had asked the analyst to send him every dismissal from the last five years, adding that he spent a lot of time rectifying his flaws, which is paying dividend now.

"He asked the analyst to send him every dismissal from the last five years or so, looked at it in great detail and tried to work out where he could go from there. He's reaping the rewards of that."

Meanwhile, the second Test between England and India is evenly poised with England having a slender lead of 27. The hosts were bowled out for 391 in their first inning.