England captain Joe Root was celebrating record-breaking 2021 as he and Dawid Malan dug deep to launch a brave fightback in the first Ashes Test at The Gabba.
After two despairing days at The Gabba, and a first-innings deficit of 278, the tourists finally landed some blows of their own to reach 220 for two on the third evening.
Dismissed for a duck in England’s underwhelming 147 all out, Root showed all his class and charisma to make 86 not out while Malan knuckled down for a highly impressive 80no.
Unlike Malan, Root has never scored a century Down Under but will spend the night dreaming of putting that right at the earliest opportunity as the duo resume their 159-run partnership.
While salvaging something from this match – a draw, the unlikeliest of wins, even just a measure of pride in defeat – would have been the only thing on Root’s mind, he scooped up a significant landmark along the way.
Until now no Englishman had ever scored more Test runs in a calendar year than the 1,481 Root’s mentor Michael Vaughan reeled off in 2002. But by the close he was sitting on a total of 1,541 and, with games at Adelaide and Melbourne still to come, he may have the Mohammad Yousuf’s world record of 1,788 in his sights.
