Joe Root's first Ashes century in Australia came at the Gabba on Thursday. If anything, it was an affirmation rather than confirmation, of his greatness.
“I think he's a great player, but is he an all-time great? I don't have him in that realm.”
That was former Australia head coach Darren Lehmann’s assessment of Joe Root before the start of the Ashes, citing his lack of a century in Australia as a defining black mark against Root’s claim to being among the true elite. It’s a smudge that has been wiped off in some style, Root standing firm as many of his team mates struggled, defying Mitchell Starc and the pink ball to keep England alive at the Gabba.
It started, as is so often the case, with England in crisis and Root, after a blip, serene. He entered at five for two, with only 15 deliveries of age on the ball and Starc rampant again. He played and missed at his second, and was then dropped off the third, Steve Smith parrying to Marnus Labuschagne but neither able to hang on. They would not get another chance.
As he eased past fifty, you could tell everyone was feeling it. It was there in every Will Jacks forward defensive, each delivered with that extra dose of focus, staying over the shot for a second more each time, just to make sure. He was not to be the man to leave Root stranded. It was there in Ben Stokes’ restraint after being run out, offering a terse smile rather than sending a volley his partner’s way. He was not going to be the man to startle Root out of his groove. It was there most of all in Root himself, taking 78 painstaking balls to move from 60 past 90, into uncharted territory in Australia, picking his path carefully over the post-fifty terrain that has so often tripped him up as he climbed inexorably towards that elusive milestone.
The relief in the moment was great, almost too great, England nearly squandering Root’s graft as Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse fell during the exhale. Instead, Root relaxed and, together with Jofra Archer, accelerated away as Australia blinked. Thoughts drifted to a tricky spell batting under lights, to whether Stokes would dare declare with Root in three figures on the first day of an Ashes Test again. All of a sudden, the last wicket had added fifty, and England had shaded the day.
This, then, was a truly great hundred, to rank among Root’s finest. But at most, it affirmed Root’s greatness, rather than confirming it. On basically any metric, Root is up there with the best there has been, averaging more than 50 in a ball-dominated era, spending large swathes of his career as the only world-class batter in a struggling team. Until now, Australia was a gap in his record, albeit a gap with some caveats. But there is also basically no great batter without a hole in their record of some sort. Ricky Ponting averaged 26 in India. Jacques Kallis averaged 35 in England.
Otherwise, Root’s record is spotless. In every other country where he has played three or more Tests, Root averages at least 45. And in six of them, he averages 50. He has contributed to series wins in India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Pakistan. He is Test cricket’s second leading run-scorer, and is now one ton off Ponting on the centuries list. He may well top both by the time he is done.
For all that, the hundred in Australia will matter hugely, and it will mean even more if it can help address the other gap in Root’s record: a win in Australia. After a false start at Perth, Root’s pink-ball pearler has gone plenty of the way to answering the one question he has left to answer.
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