In the almost 150-year history of Test cricket, only one man – Sachin Tendulkar – has scored more runs in the format than Joe Root.

“He (Root) is one of the best who have played the game since I have been around,” says long-time Australian pace spearhead Mitchell Starc.

And yet the England veteran arrives Down Under for this summer’s Ashes series with a major blot in his copybook. 

For all he has achieved in his 13-year Test career, Root does not have a Test century in Australia.

To the Australian fan, it is a barrier to greatness. How good can he really be if he’s never scored a century on our shores? Can he be viewed on the same level as Tendulkar or Virat Kohli or Brian Lara if he’s never dominated on our decks? 

Kohli’s century in last year’s Perth Test was his seventh in the format in Australia. Tendulkar has six Test tons in Australia, Lara scored four, Jacques Kallis made three. Alastair Cook, who preceded Root as England captain, has a considerably lower Test average than his successor. But Cook has five Test hundreds in Australia, and was a central figure in England’s 2010-11 Ashes triumph.

Root is not the first champion player to have a relatively middling record away to a major overseas rival.

After all, Shane Warne averaged more than 43 with the ball in Tests in India.

Muttiah Muralitharan took his Test wickets on Australian soil at 75.41.

But even some players who barely had the chance to play a Test in Australia have a ton at the level in these parts. West Indian Adrian Barath did it, so too did Zimbabwe’s Stuart Carlisle.

But for Root, there remains a glaring absence on his resume. His legacy, at least in the minds of Australian cricket fans, may be galvanised or tarnished on his ability to convert at least one century during the next six weeks of his fourth Ashes tour.

For a player of his quality, as the second greatest runscorer of all-time, this is a clear anomaly. It’s not as though Root has been an abject failure in Australia. He averages 35.68 in Tests on these shores, reaching 50 nine times without ever scaling three figures.

And he’s not the only great without a ton in another Test nation. Of the five highest run scorers of all-time, only Rahul Dravid has a century in every country he played a Test.

Tendulkar (Zimbabwe), Ricky Ponting (Pakistan and Zimbabwe) and Kallis (Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) have gaps in their near-perfect career records.

Fox Cricket analyst Kerry O’Keeffe says the first two Tests – in Perth and Brisbane – are “huge” for Root.
“They’re nicker’s Tests,” O’Keeffe said on Kayo.

“Perth … they nick for fun there, Brisbane day-night … everybody nicks in Bris. Joe Root is a nicker. When he was last here, his first eight innings in that series he nicked off in every innings.

“Australia knows that. What will be his defensive set-up?

“He said (last tour) ‘they’re not going to bowl off-cutters to me … so I’m going to stay inside the ball’. He nicked off for fun. What will he do this time? Will he try and square up and risk the off-cutter rather than nick to the keeper?”

Australian star Travis Head likens the situation to that of the retired David Warner, who never broke through for a Test century in England.

“Why has Davey not got a 100 in England?,’” Head poses as a counter question when asked about Root’s record in Australia.

“He’s never had a howler, he’s still played some pretty good innings. He’ll be determined like anyone, everyone wants to do well. I don’t think he’s having sleepless nights not getting 100 in Australia, he’s done pretty well.”

But aside from Bangladesh, where Root has only played four Test innings across a lone tour in 2016, Australia is the Test nation where his returns have been the skinniest.

And this is not a small sample size. 

Unlike Ponting who played only one Test in Pakistan and Zimbabwe, and Tendulkar four Tests in Zimbabwe at an average of 40, Root has played 14 Tests in Australia from 2013 to 2022. 

Of visiting players to have batted 20 or more times in Tests in Australia, Root has only the 42nd best average, below a host of compatriots including Nasser Hussain and Ian Bell.

In those same top 50 players, Root is one of just four not to have scored a Test ton in Australia.

The raw numbers are the easy bit. Understanding the why is harder. 

“Not sure to be honest,” Aussie veteran Usman Khawaja says to the Root conundrum. 

“It’s hard to know. He’s a terrific batsman, he’s done well over a long period of time from a young age. I mean, I played county cricket against him like 2011, around there, and he was just a young punk coming through Yorkshire.  And he was pretty confident. Good player back then too, and he’s obviously scored all around the world. He scored runs in Australia too, but not 100.”

Here’s a look at all 27 of Root’s Test innings in Australia to date:

There’s a clear theme, especially in his last two series. The mainstay of Australia’s bowling attack has been Nathan Lyon, but he has not been the primary destroyer by any stretch. Lyon has only removed Root once in the Englishman’s last 12 Tests on Australian soil.

It isn’t just a case of the Aussie quicks getting Root before he’s had a chance to face Lyon – Root has tamed the Australian off-spinner.

Lyon has dismissed Root eight times in Test cricket, but that is across 29 Tests in which they have duelled.

Former Indian player Sridharan Sriram spent six years working with the Australian team, finishing in 2022, serving primarily as spin coach.

“Very similar to (former Indian star Cheteshwar) Pujara,” Sriram told Code Sports from Chennai. 

“Lyon was all over Pujara initially, and Pujara found a way to combat Lyon later on. And I think that’s very similar to Root, like staying really deep in the crease is what Root’s done to Lyon, play him back foot, back foot, back foot.

“Suddenly use his feet and punch through mid-wicket or covers, which is what Joe Root has done. So Nathan’s got to find a way with his trajectory more than his length.”

Why is it that Root has such a tough time against Australian quicks? The answer appears to lie in the extra bounce on Aussie wickets. It takes away one of his biggest strengths: an ability to guide the ball behind square on the off-side.

According to CricViz, Root averages 99.88 with the cut / late cut through third in Test cricket. In Australia he’s only managed 41 runs with the shot.

CricViz’s PitchViz metric also has the Bounce Rating in Root’s Australian Tests with Root as 7/10 on average, the bounciest pitches for any country where he’s played.

A glut of dismissals either caught behind or in the slips cordon highlights Root’s troubles countering the bounce of Aussie wickets.

On the last Ashes tour, each dismissal in the first four Tests were caught by either wicketkeeper Alex Carey, or Steve Smith and Dave Warner in the slips.

It wasn’t until the fifth Test that he was beaten by anything pitched on the stumps.

“Our bowlers are a little bit taller, they’ve got a little bit more pace, so they get a little bit more bounce, and maybe he’s not used to that,” said former Australian paceman Merv Hughes.

Like most things in Josh Hazlewood’s life, the champion quick doesn’t try to overcomplicate the situation when it comes to understanding Australia’s ability to at least neutralise the Root threat.

“Setting him up a little bit. It’s typical line and length. We have seen Scott (Boland) and Patty (Cummins) get him a few times now as well so maybe it is the right-armer in that line and length area,” Hazlewood said.

“It’s just the typical stuff – the channel. It is typical Test match bowling.

“I think the start is very important to him – the first 20 balls.”

Hazlewood’s assertion about line and length would seem to be backed up by the numbers – with Root averaging just 26.91 in Australia against seam-bowlers on a full length and and 26.16 on a good length, compared to 63 when the bowling is short-pitched.

But Sriram revealed that Hazlewood and Cummins made a concerted effort to pitch the ball up to Root more than they would normally for other players.

“(I remember) Cummins and Hazelwood talking about pitching the ball slightly fuller,” Sriram said. 

“Like five, five and a half metre length, as opposed to six to eight against other batters, and you know, bringing him on the front.

“He hangs back a lot, and he always triggers back and straight, doesn’t trigger back and across, so stays beside the line, looks to score square of the wicket. So he defends straight and scores square, that’s been his mantra.”

Root arrives in Australia having had an outstanding five-year stretch in Test cricket. 

From the start of 2021 to Oct 21 2025, Root is the leading run scorer in the format, and it’s not even close. Steve Smith is second, more than 2500 runs in arrears. Even accounting for the amount of Tests England play compared to other sides, it is a staggering gulf that underscores his brilliance over this stretch.

“His recent form over the last couple of years has been amazing all around the world,” said former Australian paceman Peter Siddle. 

“We can’t take him lightly, that’s for sure.”

Of course this period of almost five years includes the most recent Ashes series on Australian soil four summers ago.

Despite Tim Paine resigning amid scandal weeks out from the start of the series, Australia dominated from the outset, romping to a 4-0 win, and just one wicket shy of victory in the drawn fourth Test at the SCG.

England’s batting was largely shambolic. Jonny Bairstow was the only tourist to score a century across the five Tests, and yet Root was still the third leading run scorer across both sides.

His output dwindled as the series went on, a captain going down with the ship.

Again and again he was undone by the bounce generated by Australia’s tall quicks, nicking Hazlewood and Cameron Green in the first Test, Green and Starc in the second and Green again in the first innings of the third Test before Scott Boland took control of the series in the second innings.

“Because of the extra bounce in Australia, his back foot punches have sometimes ended up in the slips or been caught behind,” said Sriram, who was with the Aussies in the 2021-22 Ashes series.

“That’s something he has to be very wary of, because in England he can get those away. Slightly back of a length he can hang back and punch through the offside, but with slight extra bounce in Australia, because he stays leg side of the ball, sometimes he gets nicked off.”

Root has played a more attacking game too during the Bazball era – which began when Brendon McCullum took over as England coach not long after the 2021-22 Ashes – but still relatively subdued compared to most of his teammates. In many respects he serves as an anchor, like he did in England’s successful 50-over side that won the World Cup in 2019.

“He is clearly England’s best most prolific batter and a massive part of their batting line-up. I think he seems to be the one to find the gears that suits the way England want to play their cricket,” said Starc.

The sight of Root – a Test great – playing the reverse ramp semi-regularly, has been emblematic of the Bazball era. But it is not just for the sake of getting funky.

“He sometimes puts the bowlers away by playing that reverse scoop, which means they will be wary to pitch it up to him,” Sriram said. 

“So he doesn’t like it. He plays that shot because he doesn’t like that length. He wants to put the bowlers off that length. That’s why he plays that reverse ramp, so bowlers go slightly shorter.” 

Khawaja is on guard for a Root revival.

“At the end of the day, you never count out good players,” Khawaja said.

“Don’t know what’s going to happen this series, but he’s one of the great Test players for a reason. So for me, it’s like, what’s happened in the past, for me, is always irrelevant. 

“Focus on the future. I’m sure the bowlers have their ideas and what they’re trying to do against him, if they had things work in the past. But I’m sure he knows that too, and he’s going to try to combat it. And that’s why Test cricket’s so good.”

Hazlewood, who will miss the series opener in a blow to an Australian attack already missing Pat Cummins through a back injury, is similarly reluctant to write Root off.

“He is a very, very good player with the second most runs in Test cricket,” Hazlewood said. 

“That doesn’t just happen. We have got the wood on him a little bit I guess in Australia for whatever reasons. He has played a lot of innings out here now,” Hazlewood said.

“He is probably in career best form which is quite surprising given how late it is in his career.”

For his part, Root has played down the historical significance of his lack of hundred, which was a talking point on a pre-series podcast involving former Australian stars.

“They are going to say what they want to say anyway, so why bother worrying about it?” Root said.

“It doesn’t make a huge amount of difference. When we look back in five years’ time, no one is going to remember what Matthew Hayden said to me … Greg Blewett, Mark Waugh, whoever it is. They are going to look back on the scoreline and think that is a historic England win or not.”

Whether Root scores a century doesn’t statistically speaking have a dramatic effect on whether England wins or not in recent times.

In the Bazball era, Root has scored 14 Test centuries (including two in one match against Sri Lanka). England has won eight of those Tests, lost four and had one draw.

Overall under Brendon McCullum, England has 25 wins, 14 losses and two draws in Tests, so the win ratio when Root does and doesn’t score a ton is similar.

Still, it’s been three years (Pakistan in 2022) since Root has failed to score a ton in any Test series for England so it is hard to envisage the Old Enemy breaking through for just its second away Ashes series win in more than 38 years without a key contribution from the former skipper.

Over to you Joe.