🔗 Share this article

Finally, even the celebration was perfect, out there under that unique vivid blue southern sky, within the tumult of the game-state – manic Baz energy, England’s lower order swinging freely death cult-style at the other end.

So yeah. All that stuff. Amidst it all, Joe Root guided the ball away past fine leg to secure his maiden Test hundred in Australia.

However, for those who understand, the significance is clear. Consider trying to explain the reason this was more than warm, uplifting and cathartic, but quietly epic.

A Milestone Caught in Time

A man who already possessed thirty-nine centuries in this starchy formal dance of a sport has now registered his fortieth. Yet, trace the journey, the craft, the jags in the road.

There will, of course, be much banter-war talk to be resolved. Has Joe Root finally achieved greatness? Is he *Australian* great?

Yet there exists something further about wishing for Root to be great in Australia. This isn't concerning rivalry. Every Australian who knows about cricket is well aware Root is a great cricketer.

The Captain's Century as a Sturdy Foundation

Root’s hundred felt meaningful in other ways, especially as something tangible in the series for this team, a handhold in the ice.

Can England secure victory at the Gabba? Uncertain. But Joe Root got a hundred. Was Harry Brook's dismissal the poorest shot? Yes. He did.

This was not merely a hundred in Australia, but a superb one in genuinely tough conditions, an innings that might just have saved his team in this series.

The innings commenced with the wings already falling off, and England’s greatest modern player coming out at 5/2. Root was dropped early in the slips.

The Contrast in the Middle

As the day progressed, England were 3/175. Two examples of elite Yorkshire-dom at the crease.

On one side, Root was playing his natural game, relaxed, graceful, alert. At the other, Brook was batting like a man who urgently requires the bathroom.

Throughout, a dusk was coming, shadows creeping across the ground, and Mitchell Starc revving up for the key spell of the day.

A Damaging Stroke

Do you run towards this danger? Yes. No sighters, no feet. Just a reckless waft first up.

The delivery to Brook was full-length, the edge clear. There is no context where this was a sensible choice.

It was at least novel in its utter failure. We've witnessed England bat in Australia like a rusted machine. Now Brook gave us the scarecrow, batting without a brain.

Root's Steady Rebuke

And so one half of this England team kept faltering, while at the other end Root batted with immense resolve, but for the entire innings.

Root provided his own subtle correction, a triumph for doing your homework, addressing your flaws.

The tourists are still in this series because he scaled the peak, provided a lesson in what skill ultimately means.

Can they dismiss Australia? Are they going to learn? It remains to be seen. But Joe Root made a hundred.