{"id":500891,"date":"2026-03-28T23:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/500891\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T23:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:25:10","slug":"how-joe-roots-example-helped-penny-drop-for-haseeb-hameed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/500891\/","title":{"rendered":"How Joe Root\u2019s example helped penny drop for Haseeb Hameed"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are various categories of batsmen. Some are mathematicians. They analyse angles and probabilities and percentage outcomes, and calculate how to use their bat like a sort of slide rule to accumulate runs. Steve Smith would be one example, Kumar Sangakkara another, Sachin Tendulkar too at times. <\/p>\n

Some batsmen are artists, the pitch the canvas on which to display their stylish, extravagant brush strokes, as you might say an AB de Villiers did or a Harry Brook or Jacob Bethell does now. Some are natural bullies, intimidating the bowlers with outrageous shots like Travis Head, Matthew Hayden or Viv Richards. Some are craftsmen, endlessly tinkering with their method, fine-tuning their positioning, movements and flow to perfect the art of persuading or manoeuvring the ball to the places where the fielders aren\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joe Root is the ultimate craftsman, and you could say that Nottinghamshire\u2019s Haseeb Hameed is his willing understudy. Root\u2019s craft was natural from the start, a response to his slight frame and lack of raw power but a product of his cricketing acumen and insatiable desire. Hameed\u2019s craft has had to be acquired. <\/p>\n

\"NottinghamshireHameed was the second top runscorer in last season\u2019s County Championship division one behind Dom SibleyFabio De Paola for the sunday Times<\/p>\n

In his career\u2019s first iteration, he was more of a grafter, preoccupied with defence. His obduracy and sound method (and early success, becoming the youngest player to reach 1,000 runs for Lancashire) earned him the nickname Baby Boycott and a Test debut. He was Alastair Cook\u2019s tenth opening partner following the retirement of Andrew Strauss and after three Tests against India he was averaging 44 \u2014 albeit at a glacial scoring rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, constipated by an obsession with technique, he ground to a halt and after a couple of very modest county seasons Lancashire\u2019s director of cricket Paul Allott said: \u201cNot only is he a million miles away from England, he\u2019s hanging on by his fingertips at Lancashire.\u201d He left the county in 2020 and joined Notts where he was reunited with Peter Moores, the coach with whom he first worked at the Lancashire academy. <\/p>\n

He rediscovered his mojo in 2021 and was pitched back into the England side for another tilt at India and the Covid Ashes of 2021-22. A sequence of single-figure scores on that difficult trip down under proved terminal from an England point of view. But he had found a soulmate and kindred spirit in Moores, someone who never shirks hard work and hard truths, and together they worked at polishing the raw diamond. <\/p>\n

\"HaseebStruggles in the 2021-22 Ashes down under ended Hameed\u2019s most recent run in the Test teamPhilip Brown\/Popperfoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The turning point was a net session at Trent Bridge. \u201cIt was towards the end of Covid,\u201d Moores says, \u201cand I was doing a bit of work with Joe Root, throwing him a few balls. A lot of balls, slightly back of a length, fourth\/fifth stump. He was doing what Joe does, steering, gliding, back-cutting those balls for runs. Brilliant. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe following morning Haseeb came in early for practice as he usually does. We were in the same net and I was throwing those same types of deliveries to Has. And he was blocking them. And I said \u2018Joe hit some of these for four yesterday. You\u2019re not even trying to score off them\u2019. And afterwards, Has was more positive and I think the penny dropped. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that moment on, he decided that was the sort of player he wanted to be. He changed his mindset from someone trying not to get out to someone trying to score runs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HaseebHameed was excellent last season at working the ball into gaps on the leg side with wristy nurdles and flicksGetty images<\/p>\n

Moores is a disciple of the fine old England player Ted Dexter\u2019s mantra that you don\u2019t play behind the ball, you play alongside it. What he means is you let the delivery come to you and use its properties rather than getting everything \u2014 pads, bat, body \u2014 in its way. Let it come beside you \u2014 play it late. What Dexter also said regarding footwork was that \u201cyou should bat as if standing in a bath [ie stepping forward or back] rather than a pisspot\u201d [ie not moving your feet].\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hameed has definitely developed his game on both those fronts. Watching some of his innings last year, he was busy at the crease, excellent at working the ball into gaps on the leg side with wristy nurdles and flicks. He was stepping out to drive exquisitely through the off side when the ball was fractionally overpitched and picking up runs off the back foot with Root-esque steers and glides, playing alongside the ball, and unleashing a back-foot cuff over gully when the ball lifted a bit outside off stump. His four first-class hundreds were all relatively fluent affairs, and he went to a double century against Durham off 240 balls (and out of a total of 403 for nine) with two straight sixes. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe has really studied the art of batting,\u201d Moores says, \u201cand he understands how to make runs. He knows his own game. And he\u2019s adaptable. If you don\u2019t bowl well he hurts you, but if you are bowling well he\u2019ll see you off.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

The eventual result is two prolific seasons \u2014 1,091 runs at an average of 51.95 in 2024, 1,258 runs at 66.21 in 2025 \u2014 and breaking Surrey\u2019s monopoly of the County Championship title as Nottinghamshire captain to boot. <\/p>\n

Hameed agrees that the work with Moores has been the catalyst in changing his approach to batting. \u201cIn particular after Australia, I made quite a conscious decision with regards to my mindset,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I think naturally then your body finds ways of giving yourself the best chance to actually put bowlers under pressure and to score more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to do that with someone like Mooresy who\u2019s worked with some of the best players in the world is brilliant. And not only myself, I think he\u2019s benefited so many people here in terms of their development in their games. That\u2019s a massive part of why we had the success that we did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Root had his own dip in productivity around the same Covid period, he looked at the other elite players \u2014 Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Steve Smith \u2014 to see what he could introduce into his own game. Had Hameed done the same?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been someone that\u2019s thought deeply about the game and I guess admired a lot of different players over the course of my career,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s things that you can pick out from so many unbelievable players in the world right now. But I think the important thing is it\u2019s got to fit your game and be authentic to your style of play. It\u2019s got to be something that comes relatively naturally to you as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NottinghamshireHameed lifted the County Championship trophy last season as Nottinghamshire broke Surrey\u2019s monopolyPhilip Brown\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

He is idiosyncratic. He\u2019s quite stiff-looking at the crease, but moves swiftly into position and swings the bat freely through his strokes, even if some of them look a little manufactured. So did some of Tendulkar\u2019s (who Hameed grew up idolising), and he wasn\u2019t a bad player.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, as England\u2019s potential fall guy Zak Crawley was pinned leg-before for a duck by Surrey\u2019s Matt Fisher on Wednesday at Canterbury \u2014 Crawley\u2019s feet stuck in that pisspot, as Dexter would have said \u2014 Hameed was reeling off a brisk 45 against Loughborough students before then, for once, watching his team-mates fill their boots. Has there been any contact from the England hierarchy? <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last communication I had was a couple of years ago. The advice was to go back to county cricket and score runs,\u201d Hameed, 29, says. \u201cAnd if an opportunity was then given, like they are doing with the current crop of players, they want to back players and they want to give them a long run at it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Australia tour in particular was a real tough one for all of us, for me in particular. You need a level of resilience to come back from that. The fact that I\u2019ve been able to come back and perform for Notts and evolve as a player shows that, hopefully, I\u2019ve still got my best years ahead of me.<\/p>\n

\"NottinghamshireHameed credits Moores as being a \u201cmassive part\u201d of Nottinghamshire \u2018s success last seasonPhilip Brown\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now the focus is very much on doing my thing for Notts. I\u2019ve got massive responsibilities with the captaincy as well. But that ambition for England will always be there as long as I keep playing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The opportunity is there. Starting with a trip to Somerset next Friday, he has six games to grab it and bring some more craft back into that England batting order.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are various categories of batsmen. Some are mathematicians. They analyse angles and probabilities and percentage outcomes, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-500891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}