Joe Root might have had to wait for several years for his first Ashes century Down Under against Australia, but he didn’t have to wait much for his second ton. The 35-year-old hit his 41st Test century on Day 2 of the fifth and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday, marking his second score of three figures in the ongoing series, where England have already lost the coveted urn to the hosts Australia. With this century, Root has become the joint third-highest Test centurion alongside Ricky Ponting.
Only Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis remain ahead of Root in the list of most Test centuries. Root hit his 41st century in his 163rd game for England, while Ponting finished his career with the same number of centuries in 168 games and a total haul of 13,378 runs.
Root has already outscored Ponting in Tests, and he is even ahead of Kumar Sangakkara, the former Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batter, in the list of most runs in Men’s Tests. However, Sangakkara has more centuries to his name with a total haul of 45, while the Master Blaster has 51.
Root is now almost 2,000 runs away from Sachin, and if he manages to achieve this number in the coming years, then he would also become the batter with the most runs in the longest and toughest format.
Speaking of his latest century, the former England captain Root brought up the milestone off the bowling of Michael Neser on the first delivery of the 60th over. With this, he became just the fourth England batter to hit more than one century in an away Ashes series, joining Michael Vaughan (3), Sir Alastair Cook (3) and Michael Vaughan (2) in an elite list.
Root’s form has been so remarkable in the last four to five years that he has hit 24 centuries in Tests since 2021, the most by any batter. Nowhere comes close to his numbers, as the second-best in the list is Steve Smith with 10 tons.
England’s batting steps up
The England batting lineup finally stepped up, but it took them five Tests to get the upper hand over Australia. Root was involved in a 169-run stand for the fourth wicket with Harry Brook, but the latter missed out on a ton after being dismissed for 84 by Scott Boland.
Earlier, England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bat. The Three Lions got their first Test victory Down Under in 14 years after winning the Melbourne match by four wickets.
The pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) didn’t please many, with the ICC also dishing out the rating of “not satisfactory” after the game ended in a matter of two days, becoming the second match of the series after the Perth Test to finish in such a short span.
