Ashes: Zak Crawley and Mitchell Starc praise Joe Root’s maiden Test century in Australia

Crawley, who shared in a 117-run partnership with Root, said the England dressing room was more jittery than the former captain as he edged towards three figures. “We were nervous for him for a long while before that.”

Crawley said Root had barely mentioned the milestone, despite it threatening to become a millstone around his neck. “He’s not trying to make too much of a 
deal of it, but I’m sure inside he’s pretty, pretty delighted. He just played a flawless knock. He made it look effortless,” said Crawley, who exorcised his own Ashes demons with his 76 after bagging a pair of ducks in Perth.

Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc also paid tribute to Root. “He played fantastically well today and assessed the conditions, sucked up some pressure and got the result by the end of the day,” the pacer said.

16
No. of matches it took Joe Root, across four tours to Australia, to score his first Test century Down Under

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever