🌟🔥 Joe Root Ends Ashes Century Drought in Australia — A Legendary 135* That Redefined His Legacy 🇬🇧🏏
🌟 When Silence Broke Into Thunder at the Gabba
For nearly a decade, one unfinished chapter haunted Joe Root’s glittering Test career — a century in Australia. He had scored runs everywhere. Dominated attacks worldwide. Entered the all-time great lists. Yet, Down Under, the three-figure mark remained stubbornly elusive.
Until Brisbane happened.
Under the unforgiving pink-ball lights at The Gabba during the 2025 Ashes, while wickets crumbled at one end and Australia unleashed relentless pace, Joe Root stood tall. And when he finally crossed that historic landmark — his maiden Test century on Australian soil — it wasn’t just a personal milestone.
🔥 It was a career-defining resurrection
🔥 It was a statement to critics worldwide
🔥 It was a legacy-sealing innings under extreme pressure
Joe Root’s unbeaten 135 off 202 balls did not just end a drought —
👉 It rewrote the emotional history of his Ashes journey
🏟️ The Stage: The Gabba, The Pink Ball & Ashes Pressure
The Gabba under lights is a battlefield designed to test both courage and technique.
⚠️ Conditions on Day One:
✅ Hard new pink Dukes ball
✅ Heavy evening humidity
✅ Fierce swing under floodlights
✅ Unforgiving bounce
✅ Relentless Australian pace attack
A venue where legends stumble.
A surface where doubts multiply.
And on this surface, Joe Root had everything to prove.
⛔ The Haunted Record: Root’s Long Australian Century Drought
Before this innings, Root’s numbers in Australia told a cruel story:
📉 892 runs in Australia
📉 Average: 35.68
📉 Centuries: 0
This from a man who, since 2022 alone, had scored:
✅ 15 Test centuries
✅ Average: 64.64
✅ World’s most prolific run-machine
The question became unavoidable:
“Can Joe Root ever conquer Australia?”
The debate consumed fans, former players, and analysts alike.
😔 Nightmares from Perth: The Series Started in Ruin
Root’s Ashes 2025 campaign opened like a nightmare:
- ❌ First innings: Golden duck
- ❌ Second innings: Only 8 runs
- ❌ Critics declared decline
- ❌ Media questioned mental block
Social media sharpened its knives.
Australia smelled vulnerability.
And then — Brisbane happened.
🔄 The Turnaround: From Doubt to Dominance in One Night
Walking in amid falling wickets at The Gabba, Root carried:
✅ England’s fragile hopes
✅ The burden of a decade-long drought
✅ The expectation of a 40-century career milestone
✅ The weight of Ashes history
From the first over, his intent was unmistakable.
🔹 Soft hands
🔹 Still head position
🔹 Absolute control outside off
🔹 Perfect judgment under lights
This was not survival cricket.
🔥 This was biblical redemption.
🧠 The Anatomy of Root’s Masterclass 135*
📊 Joe Root’s Innings:
✅ Runs: 135*
✅ Balls: 202
✅ Fours: 15
✅ Sixes: 1
✅ Strike Rate: 66.83
Every phase of the innings carried calculated brilliance:
🧩 Phase 1 — Survival (0–40)
Root absorbed swing, bounce, and psychological pressure. Left balls with monk-like discipline. Refused risky strokes.
⚔️ Phase 2 — Control (41–90)
Once settled, he began rotating strike, piercing gaps, and forcing Australia to spread the field.
🔥 Phase 3 — Dominance (91–135*)
As fatigue crept into the bowlers, Root attacked. Cover drives flowed. Pull shots punished short balls. And the milestone arrived with thunderous silence.
🏆 The 40th Test Century: Joining the Gods of the Game
This century was not just a drought-breaker.
It was Root’s 40th Test hundred.
📊 All-Time Test Centuries:
1️⃣ Sachin Tendulkar — 51
2️⃣ Jacques Kallis — 45
3️⃣ Ricky Ponting — 41
4️⃣ Joe Root — 40 and counting*
He now stands just one century away from Ricky Ponting.
And the most poetic part?
👉 He reached it in Australia, the land that resisted him the longest.
⚔️ Fighting Alone: England’s Struggle Around Root
While Root flourished, England around him collapsed in waves:
- ❌ Regular top-order failures
- ❌ Middle-order instability
- ❌ Australia’s brutal all-pace attack
- ❌ Relentless pink-ball movement
And yet, Root stood unbowed as partners came and went.
Only one man matched his resistance at the end:
🦾 Jofra Archer — The Last Stand Partner
✅ Unbeaten 32 runs
✅ Grit over flair
✅ Shielded Root from tail-end chaos
Together, they dragged England to:
📊 325/9 at Stumps — Day One
A score that had appeared impossible just hours earlier.
🧬 Why This Was Joe Root’s Greatest Moral Victory
Root has scored double hundreds. Triple hundreds. Match-winning epics.
But this may stand as one of his most psychologically important innings ever because:
✅ It ended a decade-long mental block
✅ It silenced the “Australia nemesis” narrative
✅ It restored dominance after early-series humiliation
✅ It delivered under pink-ball pressure
✅ It came when England were collapsing
Legends aren’t measured only by runs.
🔥 They are measured by the moments they reverse destiny.
🧠 Technical Genius: How Root Solved the Pink Ball
Root’s success was no accident.
🔍 Key Technical Adjustments:
✅ Bat closer to pad
✅ Straighter front foot alignment
✅ Later contact point
✅ Reduced backlift
✅ Open stance against inswing
These subtle changes neutralized:
👉 Starc’s late swing
👉 Hazlewood’s bounce
👉 Boland’s seam movement
What others feared, Root studied.
🇬🇧 England’s Emotional Lift: A Team Reborn Through One Bat
This century transformed England’s dressing room atmosphere:
✅ Despair turned to belief
✅ Collapse turned into competitiveness
✅ The Ashes narrative tilted emotionally
✅ Younger batters regained confidence
A single innings reset England’s series mindset.
🌍 Global Reaction: A Century Felt Across the Cricketing World
The cricket world reacted instantly:
🗣️ “This is Root’s most meaningful hundred.”
🗣️ “Australia may win sessions, but Root won hearts tonight.”
🗣️ “One of the finest mental comebacks in Test history.”
Even former Australian greats admitted:
👉 “This was Joe Root’s finest battle.”
🔮 What This Means for the Rest of the Ashes 2025
This innings changes everything:
✅ Root is now mentally unshackled in Australia
✅ England’s middle order gains belief
✅ Australia’s intimidation aura weakens
✅ The series now has genuine momentum swing
From here on, Australia will not face a haunted Root.
🔥 They will face a liberated one.
🏁 Cricketory Final Verdict: The Century That Healed a Career Scar
Joe Root’s unbeaten 135 at The Gabba was not built on power.
It was built on:
✅ Patience
✅ Intelligence
✅ Technical perfection
✅ Emotional endurance
✅ Ashes-level courage
This wasn’t just the end of a drought.
🔥 It was the end of a narrative that tried to define him as “human” in Australia.
And under those blinding floodlights, as the pink ball lost its menace and the crowd fell silent, one truth echoed through Brisbane:
🏏 Joe Root finally conquered Australia. And he did it with dignity, defiance, and destiny.
❓ FAQs Joe Root’s Historic Ashes Century
Q1. When did Joe Root score his first Test century in Australia?
A: Joe Root scored his maiden Test century in Australia during the 2025 Gabba Test under pink-ball conditions.
Q2. How much did Joe Root score in this historic innings?
A: He scored an unbeaten 135 runs off 202 balls, with 15 fours and one six.
Q3. Why was this century so important for Joe Root?
A: It ended a decade-long drought of not scoring a Test hundred in Australia and marked his 40th career Test century.
Q4. How close is Joe Root to Ricky Ponting’s Test century record?
A: Joe Root now has 40 Test centuries, just one behind Ricky Ponting’s 41.
Q5. Did this century change the momentum of the Ashes series?
A: Yes, it gave England major psychological momentum and revived belief after early collapses.
📌 Cricketory Insights & Analysis
- ✔ Root’s century marks the most emotionally significant innings of his career
- ✔ His technical adjustments against the pink ball were textbook perfection
- ✔ This innings may define England’s 2025 Ashes campaign regardless of final result
- ✔ Root has now removed the only major blemish from his Test legacy
- ✔ Expect his run-scoring rate in the remainder of this series to explode