England batter Joe Root adopted a unique strategy to pick wickets as England were asked to bowl after Pakistan won the toss in the second Test in Multan. After spinner Jack Leach picked up two wickets in the opening session, Pakistan settled into their innings thanks to half-centuries by Saim Ayub and Kamran Ghulam. At this point, Root thought of a rather interesting way to shine the ball, in order to provide some assistance to Leach, Shoaib Bashir and the rest of the English attack.

Root rubbed the ball on Leach’s head, making it seem as if he was trying to shine one side of the ball. Leach, who is mostly bald, had been of help in a similar manner in 2022, when Root had tried a similar tactic during England’s previous tour to Pakistan.

Watch: Joe Root shines ball on Jack Leach’s head

Shiny head Shiny ball pic.twitter.com/2yqEESpaeu

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) October 15, 2024

With Multan providing flat batting tracks, England have been forced to find innovative ways of getting a breakthrough. Root – who captained England in 64 Tests – showed that he clearly has not lost his tactical genius.

Fans were left in splits at the incident.

“That’s one way to rough it up,” commented one user on social media platform X.

thats one way to rough it up

— Passive (@passive_mikey) October 15, 2024

“What a great picture,” tweeted another user.

What a great picture

— Bilal Bali (@BALI_205) October 15, 2024

A third fan seemed to be concerned at the legality of such a manouevre.

“It looks like ball tampering to me – I can’t understand why England cricket would be promoting this as a good thing. Clearly Leach has stubble on the back of his head that could scratch the surface. Sunscreen that could affect the surface,” said the user.

It looks like ball tampering to me — can’t understand why @englandcricket would be promoting this as a good thing.

Clearly leach has stubble on back of head that could scratch surface.

Sunscreen that could affect surface.

— A Person (@OldWivesTails) October 15, 2024

Despite losing Abdullah Shafique and skipper Shan Masood cheaply, Saim Ayub and Kamran Ghulam stitched a 149-run partnership to help Pakistan recover. Ayub fell for 75, while Ghulam – replacing Babar Azam in the playing XI – edged towards a century at Tea on Day 1.