Watch: Joe Root celebrates maiden 100 in Australia during Ashes 2025/26

Heading into the Ashes 2025/26, there was a massive monkey on the back of Joe Root, who had yet to celebrate a Test century against Australia down under. In the opening Test of the Optus Stadium, he went for two flashing drives for boundaries and got dismissed against the left-arm pace of Mitchell Starc.

The stage in the second Test against Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane was different. He walked early in the middle after the visitors lost two key wickets of their opener, Ben Duckett, and the number three batter, Ollie Pope. But Joe Root was the key batter to hold the innings for the Ben Stokes-led side.

By the time he reached 98, there was a loud noise at the Gabba. At the start of the over against Scott Boland, the Yorkshire batter looked a bit out of touch before he drilled the ball into the leg side for a boundary to get his maiden Test century in the Ashes history down under. The monkey is off his back now.

Watch: Joe Root celebrates maiden century in Tests down under in Ashes 2025/26

Heading into the series, the former Australian opening batter, Matthew Hayden, made a hilarious comment that if Root doesn’t score a Test century, then he would run naked around the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Now, he won’t need to do that, given that Root has broken the ice.

England, after losing their opener and the number three batter, got a fine 100-run partnership for the second wicket with Zak Crawley, who mashed a fine knock of 76 runs. Root kept batting from one end. But the England batters couldn’t contribute much from the other end as they found themselves nine down for 264 runs from a situation where they were looking good to go beyond the 350-run mark.

For Australia, Mitchell Starc, the left-arm pacer, who has been the king of the Pink-ball Test with 81 wickets in 27 innings heading into the contest, picked up six wickets. Michael Neser and Scott Boland also chipped in with one wicket each.