As Joe Root went past Rahul Dravid’s record (210 catches)of most catches in Tests, with 211 clasps at Lord’s when he snared xxx, the first among English first-slippers recalled how he grew into the role.
Speaking to BBC Sports after Day 3 when he achieved his catches record in his 156th Test, 12 years after his first grab, New Zealand’s Peter Fulton off the bowling of Steven Finn at long-on in 2013, Root spoke of how the journey to be involved on the field started, though these days he’d always in the frame, guarding first slip. He told BBC that 25 years ago at Sheffield Collegiate Cricket Club, his first incentive was a packet of crisps (potato chips) and a pop (eg. Chocobar or orange dolly). “At eight or nine years old, I’d be doing fine leg to fine leg, working my apprenticeship that way,” Root told BBC Sport. “As you play a little bit more, you start finding ways of trying to get more involved. To get us staying engaged with the game, one of the senior players would keep asking how many balls were left. If we got it right, we’d get 20p. At the end of the game, if you were engaged and knew what was going on, you might be able to buy yourself a packet of crisps and a pop. That’s how I got into it. The more you play, the more you want to affect the game, the more you want to get into the positions where you can actually do that.”
The logic is simple – you spend more time on the ground fielding than batting.
Root told BBC his favourites: lunging catch after Sri Lanka’s Shaminda Eranga at Chester-le-Street in 2016 was pushed on Blackfoot evading James Vince and a stretched full-dive at short cover to send back Indian Ajinkya Rahane in Chennai in 2021, where he remembered the catch alongside a double hundred as England captain.
Competition with Steve Smith
The New old Fab Four also sees Root competing with Steve Smith, for not just runs but also the Caughts. Smith has 200 catches from 118 Tests, ahead of the Grenada Test beginning on Saturday. Accordingbto CricViz stats, Root averages just over 0.7 catches per Test while Smith is at an eye-popping 0.9.
Like a good batting vigil, Test catching can also demand focus over long sessions, née days. “That’s the beauty of it. You’re training your body, over and over again, that when the ball comes, you’re in the right position, lined up nicely, and staying nice and relaxed. It might be two days before you take a catch, but if it’s drilled into you, time and time again, it makes it that little bit easier. It takes that panic out of it,” he told BBC.
“There are situations where the conditions are in the bowlers’ favour and you feel very much in the game the whole time. You are naturally in a very good headspace to catch. There are other times when it comes out of nowhere, catching you off guard.”
Out on his own at the 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨𝐩 🔝
What a way to go clear with the most catches in Test history 🥇 pic.twitter.com/zDMUdRFZcq
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 11, 2025
Drops & feeling of wanting to be swallowed whole
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While first slip or close in has given Root chances of record catching, it can also turn notorious for drops like Jaiswal’s nightmare in first Test.
“There are times when you want the floor to swallow you up, to disappear,” Root told BBC. “The only way that you are going to feel remotely better is getting another opportunity, trying to put it right. You’ve got to want the ball, that next chance to come to you and be confident in yourself you’re not going to make the same mistake twice.”
One bowler has been part of Root’s tryst with history and equally misses: Stuart Broad. CricViz notes that he has “missed” 12 chances off Broad, more than he put down off any other bowler, and a stat the big Broad has not missed a chance to remind him of. “He has let me know. He’s probably got a record of how many, against who, what the score ended up being and what it should have been in his mind,” Root half joked about his famous pacer with whom hes shared 114 Tests. But at Trent Bridge 2015, Root held onto three of the edges giving Broad 8-15 against Australia.
“I felt like the ball was coming all the time,” Root said. “I was very confident. I’d caught a few before that game. It was one of those feelings where I was thinking, ‘Right, come on, any opportunity I’m clinging on to it’.”
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Beware of Ben Stokes no-ball
Root however picked Ben Stokes ahead of Broad or Jimmy Anderson as his best ‘caught X, bowled Y’ combo, adding an edge is likely soon after a no-ball – cue for Indian batters. “When conditions suit it swinging around, Ben Stokes has got this incredible knack of nicking people off,” Root told BBC.
“There have been two occasions in the past couple of years where he’s bowled a no- ball, then the next ball has been an edge, and I’ve dropped it. He always says, ‘Whenever I bowl a no-ball, make sure you’re ready’. Against Zimbabwe this summer, he bowled a no-ball. I shouted from first slip, ‘I’m ready’, then I dropped the next ball. He was absolutely fuming.”
Slip cordon chatter gets quite chatty, owing to long periods spent there, and Root offered an insight into the always theatrical Zak Crawley. He told BBC: “None of us have particularly good chat,” Zak Crawley is probably the most interesting, because he’ll want to argue about something. He’ll create a debate he doesn’t even believe in just to stimulate a conversation.” These debates go beyond cricket. “We might start naming the top five footballers in the world, favourite musicians, to where we’re going for dinner that night.”
“It’s normal stuff that must happen across the country on a Saturday. We might play Test cricket instead of league cricket or village cricket, but we’re still the same people with the same boring conversations. It doesn’t get much more interesting, unfortunately,” he ended of the fielding shenanigans.
