Last Updated on 11 seconds ago by Charbel Coorey
Joe Root is England’s greatest batter and on track to become Test cricket’s highest-ever run-scorer, but there is a weakness teams are exploiting.
Seam bowlers with the keeper up is Root’s kryptonite at the moment. He has been dismissed four times against this method this year at an average of 20. Matt Henry and Nathan Smith had success using this tactic earlier this year, and Mohammad Abbas did the same at Lord’s on day one of the second Test.
Joe Root weakness: Batting against seam bowling with the keeper up
Since the start of the 2025/26 Ashes, Root averages 39 against seam bowlers operating at under 83mph with the keeper back. With the keeper up, the averages drops significantly to 10.8, according to Sky Sports‘ statistician Benedict Bermange.
Interestingly, Harry Brook, also one of England’s key batters, struggles with the same tactic. Brook averages 40.5 in the same period against the same speeds with the keeper standing back, but just 20.3 with the keeper up to the stumps.
While Root has had his battles against the best pace bowlers of this generation including Jasprit Bumrah and Pat Cummins, this is another way teams can look to get the better of a great player. However, it will be interesting to see if teams with quicker bowlers make room for someone who can exploit this issue, provided Root doesn’t overcome it.
South Africa, where England will be touring later this year, have Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi as their main quicks. Of those players, Ngidi could be the bowler to operate with the keeper up. There is also the option of all-rounder Wiaan Mulder.
Australia will tour England for the Ashes next year. Alex Carey standing up to the stumps against Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins is highly unlikely, but Australia’s keeper has excelled with the likes of Scott Boland and Michael Neser operating. Fergus O’Neill is an outside chance of featuring, especially if conditions favour seam as they have done in England this year.
One of Root’s strategies is batting out of his crease against pace bowlers to intercept the ball earlier. According to data, Root met the ball at an average of 2.76 metres from the stumps with the keeper standing back on day one of the Lord’s Test against Pakistan. When Mohammad Rizwan stood up to the stumps, Root then met the ball just 1.83m away from the stumps.
As a result, he isn’t able to intercept the seaming ball as early.
“The keeper comes up, and you bowl wicket-to-wicket on a wicket that’s got variable bounce and lateral movement – it is keeping all modes of dismissal in the game for a long period of time,” Root said after falling twice to Henry earlier this year, as quoted by Telegraph Sport.
It will be fascinating to see how Root overcomes this issue. He is a run machine, but now he will need to think on the run when opponents exploy this tactic.
