Root admitted that being dismissed playing a reverse ramp in defeat in Rajkot last week “weighed on me” but denied the shot was “arrogant or stupid” and said that he would definitely play it again in Test cricket.

Root expressed relief that he had put a “lean” tour behind him with a sensational unbeaten century as England took control of the fourth Test on day two in Ranchi. His carefully curated 122 not out was his 31st Test century.

It was followed by Shoaib Bashir taking four for 84 as India closed on 219 for seven, still 134 behind, on a pitch bouncing unevenly.

Root managed just 77 runs in six innings before this Test, and attracted particularly fierce criticism for his dismissal in Rajkot, when he reverse-ramped Jasprit Bumrah to slip and sparked a collapse as England slid to defeat.

“It was nice to finally get some runs in this series,” the former captain said. “It has been a lean series individually for me. You pride yourself as a senior player – especially with the history I’ve had in this part of the world – to try to make contributions that put you in positions to win games.

“It has been disappointing but the fact I’ve got quite a lot of experience has been enough to keep me calm and trust the stuff I am doing, and the way I’m preparing meant it was going to come at some point.”

Root greeted his hundred with a muted, businesslike celebration and admitted that the innings was more satisfying because last week’s dismissal had been on his mind. “Certainly the execution of the shots has weighed on me,” he said. “Not necessarily the selection but the execution. I’m better than that.

“People will look at that dismissal and think it was arrogant or stupid, but I’m trying to play how I think is the best way to score runs against a very good team. Everyone is saying, ‘You get through Bumrah’s spell there and they are a bowler down’, but if we get rid of Bumrah by hitting him out of the attack an over earlier, it’s even more in our favour. You can’t see what is beyond that either.

“I think there’s a common misconception about how we go about things. At times I think it is misconstrued and has been seen to be an arrogant way to look at the game. That is not how we want to do things. We want to be smart and we want to keep looking at how far we can take the ability within our dressing room.

“You’re not always going to get it right but we’ll continue to keep trying to improve. The reason I’ve played as many games as I have is that I’ve not wanted to stand still. If you keep on trying to play the same way over and over again, teams work you out, they find your weaknesses. They are world-class bowlers for a reason. So if you don’t try to get better and find different ways of scoring runs, you’ll get found out.”

Root joked that he and Ollie Robinson, who made his maiden Test 50, had briefly discussed reaching his century with another reverse ramp. The thought was quickly parked, but he said he would use it again when the moment is right.

“It was a fleeting and selfish thought that left my mind very quickly,” he smiled. “On that wicket, it wasn’t a great option, so no. You just try to play what you honestly think is the best way to score runs. It’s not about whether you get 99 or 100 but it’s about winning and trying to get as many as you can on a surface like that.

“One hundred per cent [I will play it again] at some point. It’s not just, ‘Oh, I fancy it’, a careless decision in a split second. You’re looking at how it’s going to really affect the scenario of the game. I didn’t execute it well enough on that occasion.

“That’s how it goes sometimes. I could have dragged on trying to drive through extra cover and it wouldn’t have been a media storm, would it? If you get out, you’re out, and it doesn’t matter what it looks like.”

Leach set for surgery

Meanwhile, Jack Leach will undergo surgery on the badly-bruised knee that ruled him out of England’s tour of India after just one Test.

In a cruel twist, Leach took a heavy blow to the knee on his first day back in action after seven months out with a stress fracture of the back. While he was able to bowl in the remainder of the game in Hyderabad, he was subsequently ruled out of the tour and returned home.

Further examination has concluded that Leach needs keyhole surgery to reduce the swelling and bruising that has not gone down, almost month after the freak injury was sustained.

Leach, who suffers from Crohn’s disease, now finds himself in a race against time to be fit for the start of the County Championship season on April 5. England’s first Test of the summer is not until July 10.

“It was quite an unfortunate one,” Leach told BBC Radio 5 Live. “It was the second ball of the first innings in the field so that whole game I was playing with this knee problem.

“I obviously knocked it a few times throughout that game and it has just created a long period of recovery.

“I need to get the operation done and then hopefully I can get back to playing cricket. I’d love to have a run of playing cricket and getting into a bit of a rhythm again and hopefully that can happen again once I’ve got this sorted.”