Melbourne [Australia], November 14 : England batter Joe Root said that the upcoming Ashes series is not about him scoring a Test ton in Australia, and even if his side manages to win the Ashes urn without him reaching the three figures, it would be the "best achievement of his whole career".

The series will be a vital one for Root's legacy, who, despite his massive Test numbers, centuries and records in the 2020s, is yet to score a Test century in Australia. While he is the second-highest run-getter of all time in Test cricket and is chasing the record of Indian icon Sachin Tendulkar (15,921 runs), scoring a Test century in Australia will be massively beneficial to Root's legacy. A brilliant tour with the bat would solidify him as a batter who has scored runs in all conditions and opposition.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Root said that having that thought of scoring a century in Australia would be a "massive disservice to his team.

"This series is not about me, it is about us winning the Ashes. If at any stage it starts to become that in my own mind, then I'm doing a disservice to this team by not being the senior player I need to be within it. The whole focus has to be on us winning. If I am scoring big runs, that is going to help.

"If we come away from this and I have not got a hundred, and we win the series, that would be probably the best achievement of my whole career. That is where it sits with me," he added.

In Australia, Root is not only winless in 14 Tests against the Aussies, but he has also not scored as he would have liked, having made nine half-centuries at an average of 35.68, scoring 892 runs in 14 matches and 27 innings.With his best score being 89 and having three scores of 80s, the veteran has been unlucky to miss out on the milestone in some of the toughest conditions to bat in.

Root also reflected on his Ashes tour to Australia in 2013-14, 2017-18 and 2021-22, all being humiliating losses for England. The first one, a 5-0 humiliation, saw Root scoring just 192 runs in eight innings at an average of 27.42, with just one half-century and a best score of 87. This was Root in his early 20s, still finding his feet in international cricket.

"The first one was a very difficult one, losing 5-0, and there was a lot of stuff going on there," Root says.

The second one was Root's first tour as a captain, which saw Australia secure a dominant 4-0 series win, with two of them being innnings thrashings and one by 10 wickets. Root nonetheless, scored way better than before, with 378 runs in nine innings at an average of 47.25, with five fifties and best score of 83. He ended as the fifth-highest run-getter and his side's overalls second-highest run-getter.

"The second one was very similar. It was my first tour as captain, there were a few off-the-field things with Cameron Bancroft and Jonny Bairstow and headbutts and a few beers flying around onto people's heads and stuff," he added.

The last one was during the COVID-19 pandemic bubble in 2021-22, where Australia once again handed England a one-sided series defeat by 4-0. While a "cooked" England failed to put up a fight, Root top-scored for them with 322 runs in 10 innings at an average of 32.20, with three fifties and best score of 89.

"And the last one was COVID and, as a team, we had played 20-odd Test matches in those environments (pandemic bubble)- everyone was absolutely cooked and it was a very difficult tour for a number of different reasons around that," he added.

Root recalled that ahead of the Sydney Test, the team did not have proper coaching staff as a lot of them were "isolating for two weeks". This tour, along with with a 1-0 series loss to West Indies, was one of those final nails to his coffin as a Test captain, leading to Ben Stokes taking over eventually.

"I remember getting to Sydney and we didn't have a coaching staff. We had me, Paul Collingwood and Graham Thorpe were the three coaches that were left, everyone else was isolating for two weeks. So there were a number of different things that did not help," he recalled.

"That is not trying to take anything away from Australia and the fact they were far superior to us and outplayed us convincingly, but the fact is, this time around, I have got all that experience to lean on, I am playing some nice cricket, I have not got the responsibility of captaincy and the extra workload that entails, and I am determined to just enjoy what a brilliant tour it's going to be," he concluded.

The first Test will start from November 21 at Perth.

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