‘Australia will have to admit he’s a great’ – Root hits elusive century

Joe Root’s three-figure performance on day one of the second Ashes Test in Brisbane put an end to his long search for an Australian Test century.

After all the pre-series talking, Root dug in in his 30th innings to keep England afloat during the day-night tests.

The 34-year-old started with his team reeling at 5-2 in the third over before being dropped on two and seeing wickets fall from the other end, but the result was a score of 256-7, making his Test debut his 40th century.

He quickly reached the landmark, removed his helmet, and saluted the crowd in a typically measured ovation.

Even his former England team-mate Sir Alastair Cook, who appeared on TNT Sports, said, “Even Australia will have to admit he’s a great now.”

“It is exactly what England needed,” said the captain.

He has always been excellent under pressure. England’s greatest batsman of all time is him. He never stops improving.

Root had scored 900 runs and nine fifties in Australia before this innings, but his 33.33 average was the lowest of any nation where he had batted more than twice.

Root moves into Ricky Ponting’s top 100 Test runs, which is third behind Ricky Ponting, who is third in Test history.

It concludes, however, any discussion about whether or not Root, who is already the second-highest run-scorer in Tests, can be regarded as an all-time great without an Australian Test century, as suggested by former Australia coach and batter Darren Lehmann.

There were tension moments in Root’s knock.

Root berated himself for pushing and missing out on an outside off-field ball to bowler Cameron Green on 88, which is just shy of his previous best in Australia.

On both occasions, Scott Boland was the bowler on both 62 and 73, but the first one missed the stumps and the second hit Root off the stumps’ front pad.

When former Australia batter David Warner made reference to his “surfboard” of a front pad, talk about Root’s Australian record grew exponentially in the summer.

In reality, his real weakness was getting close to the wicketkeeper and getting caught in the slips in the first Test against Perth, which resulted in nine wickets lost.

With only two more to his name, Root could have fallen in that direction. Mitchell Starc squatted him in the direction of the cordon.

Marnus Labuschagne would not have been able to catch the ball if it had been dropped, but Steve Smith, who was soaring across from second, managed to grab it.

Root then blasted intently.

One of his greatest strengths at home is guiding the ball behind point, but the ball’s rebound and edge placement in Australia have led to his struggles there.

Root’s first 50 runs in Brisbane were primarily scored with the “V” down the field, with only 10% of those runs coming from behind square on the off-side.