Rootopia

GH has always wanted to use this headline

It should never have taken Joe Root as many as thirty innings to make a Test hundred in Australia. He may be as fine a batter as England has produced; he has made runs in all other climes and against all other comers. But there you are: sometimes cricket is as much about what doesn’t happen as what does. Root’s modest record in this country, in fact, has been a leading indicator of the home team’s supremacy. There has been a sense over the years, not unfounded, of England as Root out, all out.

Anyway, the wait is over, and was towards the end even enjoyable. Root hooked Doggett fine for 4 then square for 4 to transit to 96, whereupon the PA for a lark played ‘London Calling’. Not quite yet - in the next eight deliveries, Cameron Green beat Root’s outside edge, Will Jacks turned Root back as he sought an ill-advised second to third man, and an inside edge into Root’s pad with Boland bowling just eluded Alex Carey coming from behind the stumps - a last reinforcement of how much needs to go right to see a Test hundred through.

Finally, Root tucked Boland for 4 to fine leg, and celebrated, a little self-consciously, as though uncommonly aware of the twelve-year wait. He gave a shrug in the direction of his team’s dug out and also to the slip fielder Marnus Labuschagne, who a couple of weeks ago had generously described him as ‘the best batter in the world.’ Root is too well-mannered to make the claim himself, but maybe every so often sneaks a winsome peek at his statistics - they suddenly look better.