Billy Root, the younger brother of England captain Joe, joined Glamorgan in 2019 and marked his Championship debut for the Welsh county with a hundred against Northamptonshire at Sophia Gardens.
A product of the Yorkshire Academy, Billy had trials with Worcestershire, Leicestershire and Middlesex, besides played for Leeds-Bradford MCCU before joining Nottinghamshire in 2015. The following summer the left-hander struck a List A hundred against Warwickshire before in 2017 making 132 against Sussex as, alongside Chris Read, he helped the East Midlands team secure promotion from Division Two in the final match of the summer.
The Sheffield-born batsman left Nottinghamshire at the end of 2018 after the Club signed three other top-order batsmen – Joe Clarke, Ben Duckett and Ben Slater – and, having had limited playing opportunities during 2018, he opted to move to South Wales. After posting a fine century at Sophia Gardens on his Championship debut, Billy played some decent innings in the List A games, including a century against Surrey with plenty of deft reverse-sweeps and other inventive strokes. He then made Northamptonshire pay for dropping him in the slips first ball by recording a double-hundred in the return fixture at Wantage Road.
The only blip during an eventful first summer in Wales was that Billy’s bowling action was reported by the umpires during a List A game and he had to modify his action with the Glamorgan coaches. Nevertheless, he remained a livewire in the field and completed an audacious run out of Mark Cosgrove during the final Championship match of the summer against Leicestershire at Cardiff. Crouching at short-leg, Billy deftly made a direct hit with his return throw as the Australian batsman left his crease believing that the ball had missed the fielder.
Billy was awarded his Glamorgan cap during the Welsh county’s Championship match against Yorkshire at Sophia Gardens during 2021. Later that summer, Billy was also a member of the Glamorgan side which won the Royal London Cup. In 2023 Billy enjoyed his most productive season with the bat ,amassing 884 first-class runs.
ROOT, William Thomas
Born – Sheffield, 5 August 1992.
Best performances for Glamorgan:
In first-class cricket – 229 v Northamptonshire at Northampton, 2019; 2/63 v Northamptonshire at Sophia Gardens, 2019.
In List A cricket – 113*v Surrey at Sophia Gardens, 2019 and v Worcestershire at Worcester, 2022; 2/36 v Middlesex at Lord’s, 2019.
In T20 cricket – 41* v Surrey at Sophia Gardens, 2021.
| M | I | NO | RUNS | AV | 100 | 50 | CT | ST | |
| First-class | 53 | 87 | 11 | 2798 | 36.82 | 5 | 13 | 14 | – |
| List A | 29 | 25 | 6 | 921 | 48.47 | 2 | 6 | 9 | – |
| T20 | 27 | 24 | 3 | 357 | 17.00 | – | – | 14 | – |
| Balls | M | R | W | AV | 5wI | 10wM | |
| First-class | 234 | 4 | 168 | 2 | 84.00 | – | – |
| List A | 120 | 0 | 115 | 3 | 38.33 | – | – |