Memories, or rather nightmares of Perth, might have crept in when Mitchell Starc sent Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope to the pavilion for a pair of ducks.
At the other end was Zack Crawley, also on a pair, who could do nothing but only had the honour of watching everything in dismay. After the Aussie left-arm pacer made Duckett nick one to the slip cordon, he quickly followed up with a Jaffa of a delivery that dislodged the stumps of Pope. The Poms were once again rattled in a familiar territory at five runs for the loss of two wickets. Then came Joe Root, who had his heart in his mouth when he was put down at second slip by Aussie skipper Steve Smith.
However, the Yorkshireman moved on and, alongside Crawley, steadied the England innings by putting his head down and showing his technical prowess and craftsmanship.
Whilst Root milked and grinded at one end, Crawley kept the scoreboard ticking before being dismissed for 76.
Albeit the tumbling wickets at the other end, the right-hand batter showed his class with a wide array of shots, including the on-drives, pull shots and the square cuts that fittingly paid tribute to the late Robin Smith, who sadly passed away this week.
As Root tucked away Boland to fine leg for a boundary, the Yorkshireman reached his 40th Test Century, his first on Australian soil that had remained elusive for more than a decade. The English batter not only got the monkey off his back but also showed that the old Joe Root is back.
However, just when England were about to get folded up around the 270 mark, Root alongside Jofra Archer stitched another 70-odd runs for the final wicket in what could be called a bazballish finish that saw the right-hand batter flaying Aussie pacer Scott Boland to the stands with an unorthodox reverse sweep.
With this hundred, Root now moves to the fourth position for the most number of centuries in Test cricket and is now part of an elite club of players to have 40 or more Test hundreds. This includes Sachin Tendulkar (51), Jacques Kallis (45) and Ricky Ponting (41).
Averaging at around 37 (as per ESPN Crickinfo data), Joe Root was questioned by critics whether he was truly in the fabled Fab Four (Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson) back in 2019.
With Virat Kohli retired from Test Cricket, and Steve Smith and Kane Williamson still need some catching up to do, Root has made his standing firm as the leader of the pack with an average of 65 in over 13,000 runs in 2025.
Smith averaged around 74 in 2019 and is currently averaging 50 with just 36 hundreds and 10,557 runs. On the other hand, Kane Williamson averaged around 51 in 2019 and is currently averaging 30 with 33 Test hundreds and 8,675 runs.
In a season of stranger things where Test matches end in two days, Root’s hundred might certainly help England to turn things upside down at the Gabba in Brisbane following their shell-shocking defeat in Perth.
On a lighter note, Joe Root has also saved us from the horrendous sight of seeing a certain Matthew Hayden Naked at the Boxing Day Test in MCG, Melbourne.
For The Western Australian Newspaper, Well, Joe Root is not your average Joe.