Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting believes there’s every chance Joe Root will break his century drought in Australia during this Ashes series. England veteran Root has achieved nearly everything possible in Test cricket; one accolade that still eludes him is making a Test century on Australian soil.
The cricket world is buzzing with anticipation as Australia hosts England in the highly anticipated five-match Ashes series starting on November 21. This series will significantly impact the ICC World Test Championship standings, making it a crucial milestone in the ongoing cycle.
While Australia will enter the series as favourites based purely on the fact they haven’t lost a series on home soil since 2011 and have held on to the Ashes urn since 2018, England will travel Down Under full of confidence after they were able to draw the most recent series against the Aussies at home in 2023.
“That’s what it is, a mental thing for him this series more than anything else. His game is magnificent at the moment. He’s got to get over that little mental hurdle and get 100. And I actually think he will get that 100 this time around,” Ponting said as quoted from ICC.
“I think he’s better equipped now as a player than ever. Other times he’s come here to Australia, he’s had one or two little technical issues that on the extra bouncy wickets, the Australian fast bowlers have been able to exploit,” Ponting said.
“And I have watched the way that he’s played over the last 12 or 18 months, it looks like he’s worked really hard on taking those motive dismissals out of play. But you also know that little man that sits on your shoulder, he keeps telling you, you haven’t done well here in the past, and you haven’t got 100 here,” he added.
Root, who, despite his red-hot run in Tests during this decade and being the second-highest run-getter in the format with 13,543 runs and 39 centuries, has never managed a century in Australia. Achieving a Test ton in Australia and an Ashes series win to top it all off could elevate Root’s legacy aplenty.
In Australia, Root is not only winless in his 14 previous Tests against the Aussies, but he has also not scored as he would have liked, having made nine half-centuries at an average of 35.68, scoring 892 runs in 14 matches and 27 innings.
With his best score being 89 and having three scores of 80s, the veteran has been unlucky to miss out on the milestone in some of the toughest conditions to bat in. During the last tour to Australia during 2021-22, when England were thrashed 4-0, Root top-scored for the side with 322 runs in five matches and 10 innings at an average of 32.20, with three fifties.
He was the third-highest run-getter overall. The Ashes series in Australia will be an extremely crucial one for England. For England, this will be their chance to win the first away Ashes series since 2011 and their first overall since 2015.
