Joe Root addresses lbw issues: "I’ve got 14,000 runs for a reason"

Joe Root has spent the summer pinned in front of his stumps, the lbw appeals piling up as relentlessly as the grey English skies. Nine times in his past seven Tests the finger has gone up. Seven of those have come in this home season alone.

He sounds irritated by it. But not rattled.

“I’ve played this game a long time and I’ve always found ways of solving those problems and working it through,” Root told BBC’s Today at the Test. “I don’t see this as being any different.

“There’s a reason why I’ve got 14,000 runs and a reason why I’ve played the best part of 15 years at this level.”

This is not a youngster clinging to reputation. This is England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer, a 35-year-old with 14,208 runs to his name, a tally bettered only by Sachin Tendulkar in the history of the game. Yet this summer he has passed fifty only twice, averaging 29.44 – his second-lowest home season return across a 14-year international career.

For a player of Root’s class, that is a slump. For most others, it would be a decent year.

The lbw pattern

The numbers tell a clear story. Since being trapped by Jhye Richardson in the second innings of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, Root has been dismissed lbw nine times in 12 innings, all to pace bowlers. Every one of those recent leg-before dismissals has come against right-arm seamers, pitching the ball outside off stump and jagging it back in.

None of them have been from express pace. The bowlers have generally operated at around 84mph, not the sort of speed that usually frightens a modern great.

The method has become familiar: angle it in from wide of the crease, draw Root across, find the pad. Umpires have been persuaded often enough. Root points out that “there are probably four umpires’ calls within that, which could have gone the other way,” and he is right to highlight the margins. Technology has shown several of those decisions living on the thinnest of edges.

He also points to the wider context: a tricky English summer where the ball has moved more than usual and batting has looked like hard labour across the board.

“The ball is probably deviating more than it ever has,” he said. “You try and be realistic and understand where everything’s at, but also be aware of what you need to do to keep improving and keep getting better. I’m pretty sure I’ll get through the other side. I’m not too concerned about that.”

Old jibe, new relevance

The irony is hard to miss. When David Warner joked last year that Root would “have to take the surfboard off his front leg” to succeed in the Ashes, the numbers didn’t back the barb.

From August 2022 through to the fourth Ashes Test in Melbourne in December, Root was lbw to seamers in Test cricket only three times. The idea of a technical flaw against leg-before decisions looked flimsy.

Now, Warner’s quip has aged differently. The trend is undeniable. Bowlers have sensed a route in, analysts have circled the same zone on their laptops, and fielders around the bat have grown louder every time the ball straightens back in towards his pads.

Root’s response is to trust the process that has carried him to the top of England’s run-scoring charts.

“You’re never given anything in this game,” he said. “You have to work for everything. You have to keep working hard and I’ll certainly keep doing that.

“You’re constantly going to get challenged and you’re constantly going to have to look to evolve and learn, but that’s never been something I’ve shied away from and I certainly won’t be doing moving forward.”

Faith from the past

Those who know Root best share that calm. Former England captain Michael Vaughan has seen this film before: the technical question, the scrutiny, the adjustment, the resurgence.

“He’s always overcome problems and I’m pretty sure he’ll overcome this one,” Vaughan said. “It is an issue because it’s happening on a regular basis, but he’s had issues in the past that he’s managed to come back from. There’s no question he’ll be fine in time.”

Root has rebuilt his game more than once – from classical anchor to Bazball aggressor, from run-machine in Asia to master of English seam. He has handled spin in India, pace in Australia, and pressure everywhere.

Now comes another examination. Same player, new puzzle. Bowlers have found a method; Root believes he has the answers, even if they are not yet on the scoreboard.

He insists he is “not too concerned”. The bowlers, for now, have reason to be encouraged. How long that lasts will define the next chapter of a career already carved deep into Test cricket’s record books.