Ashes 2025-26, Australia vs England 5th Test: Joe Root continued his dominance as England's greatest batter of all time as he smashed a century in the fifth and final Test match against Australia in the ongoing Ashes 2025-26 series at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday. Root brought up his 41st Test century as he matched Ricky Ponting's tally in the all-time list.

This was Root's second century on Australian soil and second in the ongoing series. His effort helped England reach a massive total on the second day of the match. The visitors reached 336/6 in their first innings on lunch as Root remained unbeaten on 138 runs in 200 balls with Will Jacks at the other end.

During his 17-year-long and stellar Test career for the Aussies from 1995 to 2012, Ponting played 168 Test matches and slammed 41 hundreds, whereas the ongoing Test is Root’s 163rd match for England since making his debut against India in Nagpur on December 13, 2012. Root, who sits at the No. 1 position in the ICC Test batter’s ranking, needed 146 balls to complete his century.

The right-handed batter reached the 100-run mark by running a double on the first ball of the 60th over of England’s first innings, bowled by Michael Neser. Root is only the second batter after Travis Head of Australia to slam two centuries in the ongoing Ashes series in Australia.

Notably, Root had no centuries to his name in Test cricket on Australian soil before the ongoing Ashes series. The overall record of scoring the most centuries in Test cricket is held by former Indian skipper and legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar played 200 Tests for India from 1989 to 2013 and slammed 51 centuries. Jacques Kallis of South Africa stands second in the list, having finished his 166-match-long Test career with 45 hundreds.

Most centuries in Test cricket

Sachin Tendulkar (India): 51 centuries in 200 matches

Jacques Kallis (South Africa): 45 centuries in 166 matches

Joe Root (England): 41 centuries in 163* matches

Ricky Ponting (Australia): 41 centuries in 168 matches

Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka): 38 centuries in 134 matches

Ahead of completing his century in the first innings, Root leapfrogged legendary Herbert Sutcliffe to become England’s fourth-highest run-getter in the Ashes. Only Jack Hobbs (3636), David Gower (3037) and Wally Hammond (2852) have scored more runs in the Ashes for the English team than Root.


Australia vs England Playing XIs, Ashes 5th Test:

Australia: Travis Head, Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith (C), Usman Khawaja, Alex Carey (WK), Cameron Green, Beau Webster, Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (C), Jamie Smith (WK), Will Jacks, Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts, Josh Tongue