Joe Root ticked off a big-ticket item missing from his distinguished CV by bringing up his maiden hundred in Australia in the day-night Ashes Test in Brisbane.
While he has amassed more than 13,000 Test runs – only India great Sachin Tendulkar has more – Root’s lack of a three-figure score in any format in Australia was a major subplot ahead of this Ashes series.
After scores of nought and eight in England’s two-day defeat in Perth, Root was put down on two at the Gabba as a diving Steve Smith failed to hang on to a difficult low chance at slip off Mitchell Starc.
However, the 34-year-old, who came to the crease in the third over with England wobbling on five for two, capitalised on his let-off to be a pillar of defiance in tricky pink-ball conditions.
He reached his fifty from 83 balls and got to his elusive century in his 16th Test Down Under off 181 deliveries, celebrating in typically understated fashion by removing his helmet, kissing the badge, and raising it and his bat aloft.
Root’s 40th Test ton might be a relief to one Australian, with Matthew Hayden pledging pre-series to “walk nude” around the Melbourne Cricket Ground if the Yorkshireman was unable to end his barren run.
The former powerhouse Australia opener said in a video on the England and Wales Cricket Board social channels: “Congratulations mate on a hundred here in Australia.
“It took you a while and there was no one that had more skin in the game than me, literally.
“I was backing you for a hundred in a good way, so congratulations. You little ripper, mate, have a beauty and bloody enjoy it.”
