The agricultural sector is a major consumer of water for irrigation purposes. Precise quantification of irrigation water requirements will help in achieving sustainable water management. Root water uptake (RWU) is driven by transpiration demand exerted by crops and is influenced by factors such as weather and leaf area index (LAI). The root water uptake at a particular depth in the root zone depends on the local moisture content, soil type, and root density. Under certain conditions, lack of availability of soil moisture at a certain depth may be compensated by more water being drawn into the roots from wetter portions of the soil. To incorporate this mechanism, this study presents a compensated root water uptake model (CRWU) with application to maize crops grown in Indian climatic conditions. Irrigation field experiments were conducted at seven field plots with the same soil by adjusting the irrigation supplied to simulate different degrees of water stress. Daily soil moisture data recorded at different depths in the root zone, crop yield and biomass data help in assessing model performance and identifying a critical water stress index that governs the extent of compensation in RWU.