‘14,000 runs for a reason’: Root remains calm over lean form

Joe Root is enduring one of the leaner spells of his England career, but the captain says his record gives him little reason to panic. “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,” he told the BBC’s Today at the Test.

Root, England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer, has passed 50 only twice this summer. His average of 29.44 is his second-lowest in a home season during a 14-year international career. Only Sachin Tendulkar has scored more than Root’s 14,208 Test runs.

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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.

The most obvious feature of his slump has been a run of lbw dismissals. Root has been given out leg before wicket nine times in his past seven Tests, including seven times this summer. All nine dismissals came against pace bowlers, but none involved the fastest deliveries. Instead, right-arm bowlers have targeted him with balls pitching outside off stump and moving back towards him.

Root said he understood the difficulty of batting against the moving ball in England and noted that several decisions included umpires’ calls that might have gone the other way. He also said Dukes balls had behaved differently this summer, possibly because of a different lacquer. “You’re constantly going to get challenged and you’re constantly going to have to look to evolve and learn,” Root said. “I’ll certainly keep doing that.”

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You’re constantly going to get challenged and you’re constantly going to have to look to evolve and learn.