Root declines to comment on Khawaja's Ashes ball-tampering revelations ahead of Perth ODI

Joe Root has declined to be drawn into Usman Khawaja's claims about ball-tampering during the 2017-18 Ashes, speaking ahead of England's three-match ODI series in Perth that begins on November 13. Root said he would not speculate about what occurred inside the Australian dressing room and that his attention was on the forthcoming series.

Khawaja's autobiography, Sabr, has reopened discussion of the 2017-18 Ashes; Root captained England during that series, which England suffered a 4-0 defeat in under Steve Smith's captaincy. The new allegations have drawn renewed scrutiny of the events that led to sanctions in the aftermath of the Newlands incident.

Khawaja wrote that Australia's experimentation with the ball extended beyond the Cape Town Test, describing how the team had worked out that lifting the flaps on the ball's quarter seam could help generate reverse swing. He specifically referred to Mitchell Starc's delivery to James Vince in the Perth Test and wrote that Australia had been generating reverse swing throughout the series, including with the pink ball during the Adelaide Test. "The whole world was doing whatever little they could to try and reverse swing the ball," Khawaja wrote.

Asked about Khawaja's revelations, Root declined to comment on the contents of the Australian dressing room. "I wasn't in that [Australia] dressing room, I don't know what went on. I don't want to speculate. My focus is with this team right now and what we've got coming up," Root told reporters. "In terms of everything that's happening or come out in the last little while, we obviously have no idea, and it's all speculation. Our focus and our concerns are on this three-match series," he added.

When questioned whether ball-tampering was widespread across international cricket at the time of the 2018 scandal, Root said he could only speak from his own experience. "I can only speak from my own experiences. That's not how I feel," he said.

Khawaja's account challenged the narrative that only Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft knew about the plan exposed at Newlands, where Bancroft was caught on camera using sandpaper on the ball. Smith and Warner received one-year suspensions while Bancroft was handed a nine-month ban. Warner, who had largely remained silent on the controversy for eight years, posted an Instagram video calling Khawaja's claims "100 per cent accurate" and describing Cricket Australia's investigation as "rushed and botched"; Cricket Australia has defended its original inquiry and Mitchell Starc has said he was unaware of any plan to tamper with the ball. "There's absolutely no benefit in going back," CA chief executive Todd Greenberg told SEN radio on Tuesday. "That's the clear position of the CA board."

With the controversy resurfacing just days before the ODI series, Root reiterated that England will not become involved in the renewed debate and will concentrate on the three-match series that begins in Perth on November 13.