The younger brother of England's reinstated Test captain Joe Root, Billy Root has announced his retirement from professional cricket. Billy had played just two games in the ongoing County Championship Division One 2026. The Glamorgan left-handed batter made his final appearance in professional cricket earlier this month, registering scores of 11 in both innings.
Billy took to social media to announce his retirement after 14 years of professional cricket.
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"It has been an absolute privilege to represent two great clubs and to share in the success of four trophy wins," Root said. "I feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to make a career out of something I have loved since I was a kid.
"There have been plenty of ups and downs over the last 14 years, but I wouldn't change a thing. I'll always be incredibly grateful for the journey, the people l've shared it with and the opportunity to live out a childhood dream. Thank you to everyone who has played a part."
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Billy has joined the list of Glamorgan batters who have announced their retirement this year. The other two are Chris Cooke and former South Africa batter Collin Ingram. Glamorgan are currently placed sixth in the table with four wins from 13 games and 146 points.
The other country cricketers to retire are Durham's Scott Borthwick, Gloucestershire's Luke Charlesworth, Derbyshire's Anuj Dal and Northamptonshire's Rob Keogh.
Billy’s career in numbers
Billy had made his first-class debut in 2015. Two years later, he made his List A and T20 debuts as well. He played seven T20 Blast seasons including two for Nottinghamshire and five for Glamorgan. He could not excel as a T20 batter, not scoring a single fifty. From 39 innings, he managed 634 runs at an average of 21.13 and strike rate of 111.81.
Billy played 83 first-class games, scoring 4,107 runs at an average of 32.08 including seven tons and 17 fifties. His high score in red-ball cricket is 229. In List A cricket, he played 60 games and scored 1,665 runs from 51 innings at an average of 40.60 with a strike rate close to 90. He scored three centuries and nine fifties in his One-Day career. He was handy as a part-time off-spinner taking eight and six wickets in first-class and List A cricket respectively.
While Billy never got to make his debut for England, he shared the field with Joe when he turned up as England's 12th man in 2013 at Lord's Test. He was a part of MCC Young Cricketers then.