Root dismisses batting concerns despite lbw plague: "I've got 14,000 runs for a reason"
Joe Root has brushed aside questions about his modest summer with the bat, pointing to a career record that places him second only to Sachin Tendulkar on the all-time Test run-scorers' list.
"I'm not too concerned," Root told BBC's Today at the Test programme. "I've got 14,000 runs for a reason." BBC Sport
The comments come at the end of a home summer in which Root has passed 50 only twice and averaged 29.44 — his second-lowest return in 14 years of international cricket. The more persistent concern is how he has been getting out. Root has been dismissed lbw — leg before wicket, where the ball hits the pad in line with the stumps — nine times in his past seven Test matches, seven of them during the 2025 English home season. BBC Sport
The run began in Melbourne on Boxing Day, when Australia's Jhye Richardson trapped him in the second innings of the fourth Ashes Test. Since that dismissal, Root has been lbw nine times in 12 innings, all to pace bowlers. None came against express pace; every bowler who got him operated at around 84mph or below. BBC Sport
Former Australia opener David Warner had flagged the vulnerability a year earlier, warning ahead of the Ashes: "He will have to take the surfboard off his front leg" — a reference to Root's front leg drifting across the crease and exposing the stumps. Former England captain Michael Vaughan offered a more reassuring view, saying Root has always overcome technical issues and will do so again. BBC Sport
Root returned as England's Test captain in July 2026, reuniting with newly appointed head coach Stephen Fleming. ECB He had previously captained England in a record 65 Tests before stepping away from the role, a stint in which the team scored at 3.16 runs per over and played an attacking shot 23% of the time. Yahoo Sports Root has said he intends to keep elements of the approach developed under Ben Stokes rather than ripping up the blueprint entirely. ICC
Stokes, for his part, voiced one concern about the arrangement — that the captaincy might eventually wear Root down as it did during his first stint in the job. ESPN Cricinfo
Root's confidence is not without recent foundation. In 2024 he scored six Test centuries and more than 1,400 runs, earning a shortlist nomination for BBC Sports Personality of the Year. ECB His career tally stands at 14,208 Test runs, behind only Tendulkar's 15,921. BBC Sport
For now, Root is leaning on that body of work. A batsman with 35 Test hundreds and a decade-plus of runs behind him has earned the right to trust his own methods — even when the lbw column makes uncomfortable reading.
