Joe Root has been dismissed lbw seven times this summer, including twice in the second Test against Pakistan at Lord's, but Graham Gooch, who overcame a similar problem in 1989, is confident the England captain will find a way through.
Root's latest lbw came off the bowling of Mohammad Ali on the evening of day two. After letting out a "Woaaa-ho!" as a ball jagged away late past his gloves, he was pinned on the pad by the next delivery, which darted back and scudded low. He reviewed with a weary shrug but knew his fate—it was his second lbw dismissal in the Test, his seventh of the summer, and ninth in his past 12 innings.
Root's approach to solving problems
Root's post-match comments gave an insight into why he is one of the all-time greats: "I've played this game a long time, I've always found ways of solving those problems and working it through and I don't see this as being any different."
Root has been here before, from the teenage growth spurt that destroyed his technique to the recently answered questions about his lack of a Test ton in Australia. Batting with the captaincy, without it, and with it again—Root finds a way.
Elite batting is an endless series of riddles to be solved. Root did admit that he was "frustrated" with the lbw trend and knows that a couple more similar dismissals at Edgbaston will only lead to more lbw chat. The number of lbw dismissals in Tests this summer is at 23%, compared to the constant 13% from 2021-2025. As Root said, a handful of his seven this summer could have gone either way on DRS.
Gooch's own battle with lbws
One thing for which Root could be thankful is that his lbw dismissals have not all been at the hands of one man. "I went through three pairs of pads because of him," Graham Gooch says with a laugh as he recalls his own struggles against Australia's Terry Alderman in 1989.
Gooch, who spoke to the England team before the second Test against Pakistan, is adamant his situation is different from Root's: "He'll find a way, that's why he's world class. Top players generally get out lbw or nick off. They don't get bowled or caught in the ring and that sort of stuff. Joe falls into that category. So, you know, it's causing him a little bit of an irritation, but that's the life of a batter."
Gooch went to see Geoffrey Boycott to help iron out his technical difficulties. "I was playing across the line a little bit too much and I made the mistake of moving more to the leg side," he recalls. "I straightened up; instead of taking a leg stump guard I went across to middle, middle and leg, and I just moved my back foot backwards. It was instantly a lot better."
Gooch's advice and legacy
Gooch doesn't see any such flaws in Root's technique and stresses again not to conflate the two. The man who has scored more professional runs than anyone else in the history of the game sums up the batter's relentless paradigm: "You encounter endless problems, it's all about how you are equal to them and how you come through them. If you work one thing out and think it's all going to be rosy, well no, it doesn't work like that. You're always going to have things that are going to challenge you."
After his doomed duels with Alderman and tinkerings with Boycott, Gooch went on to have one of the deepest purple patches of modern batting. In 1990-91 he averaged more than 50 in five out of six series. At Lord's against India in 1990 he racked up 333 in the first innings, his highest Test score, and followed up with 123 in the second innings—a record 456 runs in a single Test. He ended up with 752 runs in the series.
Can he look back at the Alderman summer of 1989 with a smile now? He pauses before answering unequivocally. "No … but I do thank Terry Alderman and have in person at many after-dinner gigs since. He helped straighten out my technique."
