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Just three months prior to the Ashes 2025-26, Australia legend David Warner and former England all-rounder Moeen Ali engaged in a war of words on Joe Root’s Test batting records down under. Root did a phenomenal job for England against Team India in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025. During the series, Root broke several batting records. In the final Test at The Oval, he struck his 39th ton and shattered Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara’s red-ball record of 38 hundreds, to become the fourth-most successful batter in terms of centuries in cricket’s longest format.
While the Ashes is still more than 100 days away, Warner was recently seen in a mood to take a swipe at Root. He had emphasised on the fact that Root is yet to score a century on the Aussie soil. The former Aussie opener had also called Root a hell of a cricket player. "Joe is a hell of a cricket player, look at the runs he has scored, the second leading run-scorer in the world. But I'm sure he'd like to score a hundred in Australia. It's one that has eluded him. I think that will be on his mind, so we will have to wait and see," said Warner on BBC Test Match Special a few days back.
However, Moeen Ali took on Warner and called the 38-year-old a clown for striving to upset Root before the much-awaited Test competition to begin in November. "He's just being Warner. He's a bit of a clown, to be honest with you. He's obviously trying to get into Rooty's head-which he won't. He's not up for the whole banter thing. It's just Warner, isn't it?," Moeen remarked on the Beard Before Wicket podcast.
Joe Root’s Test batting records in Australian conditions
Joe Root’s batting numbers haven’t been extraordinary in Australia. Appearing in 14 games down under, he has accumulated 892 runs with nine fifties at an average of 35.68 in 27 innings. Against the Aussie captain Pat Cummins down under, he has struggled to stand tall. Off 14 innings against the 32-year-old, Root has scored 121 runs, while Cummins has got the better of him on five occasions.
In the upcoming Ashes series, it will be interesting to witness how the 34-year-old star English player tackles the Aussie side’s formidable fast-bowling trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Cummins.
