Joe Root urges England to celebrate Pakistan Test win ‘in a sensible, grown-up way’
Joe Root urged his England team to “celebrate in a sensible, grown‑up way” after they beat Pakistan at Lord’s on August 30, 2026, to take a 2-0 lead in the Test series with one match remaining. He said celebrations should not be overshadowed by off-field matters and asked players to enjoy the victory while behaving responsibly.
England’s win at Lord’s secured their first multi‑game series victory since 2024 and comes amid a year in which the team has faced off-field scandals. Root said: “It’s important we’re not talking about [off-field matters], absolutely,” and added: “It’s hard to win Test matches, it’s hard to win Test series, so enjoy it and celebrate it, but in a sensible, grown-up way.” He also described the occasion as “a really good start to, I don’t know what you want to call it, this new team.”
Root’s own form this summer has been a concern: in nine innings he is averaging 29.44 compared with a career average of 50.38, and he has been given out lbw seven times, including in both innings of the Lord’s match. On his form he said, “I’ve always been quite good at understanding and eventually problem-solving,” and: “I’ll continue to keep working hard. I might have been lbw a few times, but lots of those have been umpire’s call - if they go the other way it might not be as much of a talking point.”
After another difficult match for the batters at Lord’s Root deflected criticism of a pitch he called “naughty” and pointed instead to changes in the match balls. “I think they’ve been very different this year,” he said. “I think there’s a different lacquer to them. I don’t know, I’ve not got evidence on that – you probably need to ask Dukes – but I think there’s lacquer on the seam. As a batter, when you practise, they’re cracking your bats more frequently. And they seem a lot firmer.”
Root expanded on how he believes the balls are affecting play, saying they were denting wickets and producing more seam movement in certain conditions. “I think they’re affecting the wickets as well. I think they’re denting more. If they dent the wicket it’s going to seam off the dents as well, it’s going to move more. It’s been challenging. Sometimes you do come across summers where it’s the perfect storm: you get overcast conditions, you get a bit of rain to contend with, the balls are slightly different. But that’s part of the challenge of Test cricket, being able to adapt.”
Pakistan’s Mohammad Abbas admitted his side were unhappy with their overall display but saw progress compared with the first Test. “Everybody’s not happy with this performance,” he said. “We 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 getting better. As a team, we aren’t doing well. But we are working on that.”
The series now heads to Birmingham for the final Test, and Abbas concluded: “The next match will be in Birmingham, and hopefully victory will come.”