- By Namrata Vijay
- Thu, 04 Dec 2025 11:42 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Ashes 2025: England's star batter Joe Root ended his century drought in Australia as ex-England skipper Michael Atherton lauded him and called this innings one of the best of Root's career. As the visitors had once again faced a batting collapse in Gabba, Root had helped them bounce back on day 1.
Atherton emphasised the situation in which Root scored this knock. In an interaction on Sky Sports Cricket’s Ashes Daily podcast, he revealed that Root's ability to score runs when all the other batters were failing around him was why this knock was one of the best in his career.
“It’s been a long time coming. What matters to him more than anything is scoring crucial runs at a critical time. He was in for the 16th ball of the innings at 5 for 2, so it could have gone horribly wrong,” Atherton was quoted as saying on Sky Sports Cricket’s Ashes Daily podcast.
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“With Mitchell Starc knocking back Duckett and Pope for ducks, all those memories of Perth flooding back, but then England’s greatest run-getter played the innings of his life — because everything is on the line here,” he said.
His long century drought in Australia isn't just about numbers. Post 30 knocks in Australia, where he failed to convert a fifty into a hundred, and he came to Australia with that thing like an unwanted partner. Before this series, Root had talked about conquering the final frontier. And on Thursday, while facing Australian pacers like Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, and Michael Neser, he was able to achieve that.
His knock of 135 runs consists of pure Ashes chaos. Starc first dismissed Ben Duckett on the first ball itself and then, after a few minutes, took the wickets of Ollie Pope and left the visitors reeling at 5/2. Root, along with Zak Crawley, helped the team bounce back by building a partnership. And when they kept losing wickets from one end, which also includes that of Ben Stokes, who was dismissed owing to a runout, Root held his nerves. He kept one eye on the scoreboard and one on the pitch.
Till stumps, Root was still unbeaten and helped the visitors post 325/9, and helped the team bounce back after suffering a batting collapse. It wasn't a flashy inning but a brilliant one, which showed how to survive and then dominate.