Joe Root Blames Umpire Calls and Ball Changes for LBW Slump, Still Chasing Tendulkar's Test Record

Joe Root is in a slump by his own standards, and he's not hiding from it. But he's also not buying that it's really about him.

The England Test captain, 35, is averaging 29.44 this home summer, his second-lowest home season average since his international debut 14 years ago, according to Times of India and Cricbuzz. He's crossed 50 only twice all summer. Times of India, Cricbuzz and Yahoo Sports all report he's been dismissed LBW nine times in his last seven Tests. Channel NewsAsia and Dawn frame the same run of outs as nine LBW dismissals in his last 12 innings. Both numbers can be true at once, though the outlets measured it differently.

Root sits on 14,208 career Test runs, second on the all-time list behind Sachin Tendulkar's 15,921, per Times of India and Channel NewsAsia. Every low score this summer gets measured against that pursuit.

His explanation: umpires and the ball, not his eyes or feet

Speaking to the BBC after the second Test against Pakistan at Lord's, Root pointed to specifics rather than excuses. "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 said, according to Times of India, Yahoo Sports and Cricbuzz. "Of course it's frustrating that there's sort of a trend. There are probably four umpires' calls within that, which could have gone the other way, and the ball is probably deviating more than it ever has."

He went further with The Independent, laying out a theory about this year's Dukes balls. "I think there is a different lacquer to them," Root said. "I don't have evidence on that, and probably need to ask Dukes, but I think there is a lacquer on the seam and they don't want them to go out of shape." He added that the balls "seem a lot firmer," are cracking bats more in practice, and may be denting pitches, which in turn makes the surfaces seam more. "I know that here, they'll be desperate to prepare the best surfaces possible," he said, crediting ground staff rather than blaming them.

That's a specific, testable claim, not a vague complaint. Root isn't accusing anyone of cheating. He's describing a manufacturing change he believes is affecting how the ball behaves, and he says he hasn't actually confirmed it with Dukes. Until he does, it's Root's read on the conditions, not a verified fact about the equipment.

The conditions argument has some backing beyond Root's own struggles. The Independent reports Pakistan failed to top 400 in four innings across the series, no batter from either side scored a century, and Jamie Smith's 61 was the highest score of the match at Lord's. Saud Shakeel fell one short of a century for Pakistan at 97. The Lord's pitch had already drawn scrutiny earlier in the summer after a low-scoring match against New Zealand, per The Independent.

The team won anyway

Whatever's happening with the ball or the umpiring, it didn't stop England. The team beat Pakistan by 194 runs at Lord's to seal a 2-0 series win with a match to spare, according to The Independent and Amanshanti News. That gives Root two wins from two Tests in his second stint as captain, and Amanshanti News notes it's England's first Test series win since 2024.

Root himself went 4 and 24 at Lord's, out LBW both times, per The Independent.

The build-up to that Test was overshadowed by a separate issue: fast bowler Brydon Carse was dropped from the squad following an incident outside a nightclub in Derby, according to Channel NewsAsia and Dawn. Root said he addressed it directly with the squad. "It's hard to win Test matches, it's hard to win Test series," he told reporters. "Enjoy it and celebrate it, but in a sensible and grown-up way."

Neither Channel NewsAsia nor Dawn detail what the Carse incident actually involved beyond calling it "an incident outside a nightclub," and no further disciplinary outcome for Carse has been reported in these accounts.

Root's next scheduled test of his own theory comes whenever Dukes responds to his lacquer claim, or whenever England next takes the field with the same ball under different conditions. For now, the record chase continues at 14,208 and counting, with 1,713 runs separating him from Tendulkar's mark.