{"id":874268,"date":"2026-08-30T21:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T21:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/874268\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T21:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T21:16:13","slug":"joe-root-urges-england-to-celebrate-pakistan-series-win-in-sensible-grown-up-way-england-v-pakistan-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/874268\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Root urges England to celebrate Pakistan series win in \u2018sensible, grown-up way\u2019 | England v Pakistan 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Root has called on his players to \u201ccelebrate in a sensible, grown\u2011up way\u201d after they secured a first multi\u2011game series<\/a> win since 2024 by beating Pakistan at Lord\u2019s to take a 2-0 lead with one to play.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s recent opportunities for celebration have often resulted in scandal<\/a> and Root intends to end the scandals rather than the celebra\u00adtions. \u201cIt\u2019s important we\u2019re not \u00adtalking about [off-field matters], absolutely,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard to win Test matches, it\u2019s hard to win Test series, so enjoy it and celebrate it, but in a sensible, grown-up way. It\u2019s been a really good start to, I don\u2019t know what you want to call it, this new team.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been a difficult summer so far for Root: in nine innings he is averaging 29.44 \u2013 compared with a career average of 50.38 \u2013 and has been dismissed lbw on seven occasions, including in both innings of this game. \u201cI\u2019ve always been quite good at understanding and \u00adeventually problem-solving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll continue to keep working hard. I might have been lbw a few times, but lots of those have been umpire\u2019s call \u2013 if they go the other way it might not be as much of a talking point. We\u2019ve also seen the ball move more than it ever has. So there has to be a sense of calm and realism around things. I know I\u2019m a good player, and I\u2019d like to think there\u2019s a big score around the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

After another difficult match for the batters at Lord\u2019s, Root deflected criticism of a pitch he described as \u201cnaughty\u201d by spinning attention instead to the balls, which he says have been sapping the players\u2019 spirits \u2013 and breaking their bats. \u201cI think they\u2019ve been very different this year,\u201d he said. \u201cI think there\u2019s a different lacquer to them. I don\u2019t know, I\u2019ve not got evidence on that \u2013 you probably need to ask Dukes \u2013 but I think there\u2019s lacquer on the seam. As a batter, when you practise, they\u2019re cracking your bats more frequently. And they seem a lot firmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re affecting the wickets as well. I think they\u2019re \u00addenting more. If they dent the wicket it\u2019s going to seam off the dents as well, it\u2019s going to move more. It\u2019s been challenging. Sometimes you do come across summers where it\u2019s the perfect storm: you get overcast conditions, you get a bit of rain to contend with, the balls are slightly different. But that\u2019s part of the challenge of Test cricket, being able to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s Mohammad Abbas conceded that \u201ceverybody\u2019s not happy with this performance\u201d but insisted the team was improving. \u201cWe were much better in this match [than in the first Test]. You can see that as time passes we are getting used to the conditions and everything is \u00adgetting better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs a team, we aren\u2019t doing well. But we are \u00adworking on that. The next match will be in Birmingham, and hopefully victory will come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Root has called on his players to \u201ccelebrate in a sensible, grown\u2011up way\u201d after they secured a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-874268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}