🔗 Share this article

Ultimately, even the celebration was perfect, on the field under that strange deep-blue southern sky, amid the chaos of the contest – frantic Baz energy, the English lower order scything away death cult-style at the other end.

So yeah. All that stuff. Amidst it all, the veteran batsman guided the ball away past fine leg to notch his long-awaited Test hundred in Australia.

However, for those who understand, the significance is clear. Imagine trying to explain why this was more than warm, uplifting and cathartic, but subtly monumental.

A Milestone Frozen in Its Own Light

A player who already had thirty-nine centuries in this traditional format of a sport has now compiled his fortieth. But, follow the narrative, the skill, the twists and turns.

There'll, of course, be much debate stuff to be hashed out. Does this cement Joe Root's greatness? Is he considered great by Australian standards?

Yet there exists something deeper about hoping for Root to be great in Australia. It isn't regarding point-scoring. Any Australian who knows about cricket recognizes Root is a world-class cricketer.

The Captain's Hundred as a Reliable Foundation

Root’s hundred felt important in other ways, especially as something solid in the series for this team, a foothold in the ice.

Will England triumph at the Gabba? Don’t know. But Joe Root got a hundred. Was Harry Brook's dismissal the poorest shot? Yes. He did.

And not just a hundred in Australia, but a outstanding one in authentically tough conditions, an innings that might just have saved his team in this series.

It had to start with the wings already falling off, and England’s greatest modern player coming out at two wickets down for five runs. A chance was put down early in the slips.

The Juxtaposition in the Crease

In the afternoon session, England were 3/175. Two examples of elite Yorkshire-dom at the crease.

On one side, Root was exuding calm, relaxed, graceful, watchful. At the other, Brook was batting like a man who urgently requires the bathroom.

All the while, a darkness was coming, shadows creeping across the ground, and Mitchell Starc revving up for the crucial spell of the day.

A Damaging Choice

Is it wise to challenge this? Yes. No sighters, no feet. Just a flash of the bat first up.

The ball to Brook was full, the edge clear. There is no context where this was a smart choice.

It was, if nothing else, novel in its abjectness. We have seen England bat in Australia like the Tin Man. This was Brook as the scarecrow, batting without a brain.

Root's Quiet Rebuke

Therefore one half of this England team persisted in failing, while at the other end Root batted not just for his life, but for everyone else’s too.

He offered his own masterful response, a triumph for diligence, working at your flaws.

The tourists are still in this series because he did the thing, delivered a lesson in what talent truly means.

Can they dismiss Australia? Can they evolve? It remains to be seen. But Joe Root compiled a hundred.