Ashes 2025: Joe Root’s last frontier – can he finally conquer Australia?

By Megh Mandaliya

Joe Root will head into the 2025-26 Ashes with a cricketing résumé that’s all but complete.

He has tamed the spinners of the subcontinent, excelled beneath England’s grey heavens, and stood resolute through countless batting collapses.

Yet his storied career bears one notable omission: A Test century in Australia. 

Over 27 innings in 14 Tests on Aussie soil between 2013 and 2022, Root has yet to reach three figures. He has notched nine half-centuries and a long list of “almost” innings Down Under. 

His average? Mid-30s. For a player boasting over 13,500 Test runs and 39 centuries, that missing chapter borders on the unbelievable. 

This upcoming tour offers what many believe to be his best opportunity to reach that milestone, not just for personal legacy, but for England’s hopes of reclaiming the urn.

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A record of frustrations

Root’s Australian woes owe less to form than to the unforgiving fine margins of Test cricket. 

His scores there read like a cycle of near-success: 87 at Adelaide in 2013, 83 at Sydney in 2018, 89 at The Gabba in 2021, all innings where he looked assured, composed, and technically flawless until one lapse cut him short.

Root’s first away Ashes exposed the harsh realities of facing the Mitchell Johnson-led pace barrage; the right-hander only managed 192 runs at 27.4. 

Cut to the 2017-18 Ashes, Root, now England’s captain, entered the series as the pillar of England’s title bid.

Five half-centuries came his way, yet a century remained elusive. With a 33.9 series average, he could not prevent England’s 4-0 defeat Down Under. 

In 2021-22, Root’s form had been sublime, leading up to the series having already accumulated nearly 1,500 Test runs in 10 months with six centuries to his name. 

The Ashes proved his Achilles heel once more, even after setting the record for most Test runs by an Englishman in a calendar year. 

Joe Root’s record in the Ashes

Venue	Innings	Runs	Average	100s	50s
England	38	1,536	43.9	4	9
Australia	27	892	35.7	0	9

It’s a contrast that has followed him for years: a man in complete control at home, yet still chasing that same feeling away. 

Root averages 43.9 in home Ashes Tests with four centuries, including four hundreds and nine fifties.

Those home hundreds, 180 at Lord’s, 134 at Cardiff, 118 at Edgbaston, arrived when England most needed them. 

But the numbers dip drastically once Root boards the plane south. The statistical quirk highlights his dot ball percentage climbs past 76, and the conversion rate drops to zero. 

Reading between the numbers

The numbers make for painful reading. Root has faced more than 2,000 balls in Australia without reaching three figures, the most by any English batter this century, behind only Indian greats Rahul Dravid (2,504) and Cheteshwar Pujara (2,657).

The Yorkshireman’s journey from fifty to a hundred has also been a tale of peaks and pauses. In his overall Test career, Root has 39 centuries and 66 fifties from 185 innings, meaning he converts 37% of his 50+ scores into hundreds. 

This places him just behind Steve Smith (45.6%) and Virat Kohli (49.2%) among modern greats. However, that trend has begun to shift in recent years with the England batter hitting a purple patch. 

Across the past half-decade, Root has produced 22 of his 39 Test hundreds, which is close to 57% of his total output. Root’s conversion rate has almost doubled, rising from 26.1% in the early 2020s to 54.5% in his recent run.

Still, in the Ashes, or particularly in Australia, that old pattern persists.

Why Australia has been so tough

Part of the explanation lies in Australian conditions. Aussie pitches lean bounce, pace, and carry. Once the swing dies, what remains is the cruel geometry of bounce and lift.

Root’s strength has always been soft hands, deft drives, and a cheeky reverse ramp now and then, all relying on late movement.

Against pace in Ashes Tests, his average tumbles from 40.1 at home to 31.9 away.

The Australian pacers’ unerring line outside off-stump has turned him into a sentinel at the crease, and 79% of those deliveries were kept off the bat. 

Root has been dismissed 21 times by Australian quicks across three tours, with the bulk of his dismissals (81%) having been caught and just one from being bowled. 

The psychological strain has played its part too, as captain, Root often bore the weight of England’s batting and their spirit.

Being the one expected to steady the ship as the lineup collapses is as punishing as it sounds.

Why it still matters

At 34, Root is no longer defined by numbers on a scorecard. Milestones have always mattered in cricket, and this one carries particular weight.

It’s been 14 years since England last held the Ashes in Australia, a drought Root has lived through from the very start of his career.

To finally notch a century in 2025 would not only banish old demons but also set the tone for a fiercely contested series.

Every great player has a frontier they must conquer. For Tendulkar, it was the century of centuries; for Smith, redemption after scandal. For Root, it’s a ton in Australia. 

Buoyed by ‘Bazball’, the 158-Test matches old admitted that, “making big 100s will give England a great opportunity”, before quickly adding: “This tour is not about me making 100. It is about us going and winning an Ashes series.”

When the Ashes roll around in November, some familiar sights and sounds will return, some 40,000 voices rising at the MCG, the crack of leather at Perth, the pink ball glowing at The Gabba. 

And amidst all that, Root will again take a few light-footed taps to mark his guard, often middle or middle-and-off, bidding to end his Australian hoodoo.

READ MORE: Joe Root hopes England can grasp ‘great opportunity’ to win Ashes in Australia