Joe Root finally has an Ashes victory in Australia. It took 18 Tests and arrived on a lively MCG surface, yet England’s eight-wicket success in the fourth match still leaves them 3-1 down heading to Sydney. The mood, unsurprisingly, is mixed.
“It feels a bit weird, if I’m honest,” Root said afterwards, accepting that ending a 14-year personal wait does not change the overall scoreline. The captaincy baton now sits with Ben Stokes, but Root remains a senior voice and, after 15 previous defeats in this country, a win mattered.
The match itself lasted barely two days. England chased 175 after 15 wickets had tumbled on the first morning, the pitch offering seam, bounce and the occasional divot. “I wouldn’t want to bat on it every week, put it that way,” Root noted with a wry smile. He made a duck in the first innings, then 15 not out in the second; hardly vintage numbers, yet the sight of Root punching the air at the finish showed what it meant.
His tour as a whole has been quieter. The 138 not out in Brisbane remains his only hundred and props up a series average of 33.42, an outside-off-stump issue refusing to disappear. Root, though, is far from England’s biggest concern. Debate has centred on head coach Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key, criticised for a build-up that involved only one warm-up fixture.
“In terms of the playing group, we’re absolutely committed to the management,” said Root. “They’ve been outstanding.” He expanded: “You look at the group of players that we’ve got and you look at the guys that were involved in the team when I was captain, four years ago, and you look at their records individually, and every single one of them has improved as a player. This team has improved as a team. So I think it would be silly for the amount of hard work and things that have been done.”
Since McCullum joined forces with Stokes in June 2022, England have won 26 and lost 17 of 45 Tests. The numbers remain positive, but the trend line has flattened: 12 victories and nine defeats from 22 matches since April 2024, while four consecutive five-match series – including this one – have eluded them. They sit seventh in the World Test Championship standings.
“Clearly it’s been a very different approach and different way of doing things, but there’s been a considerable move forward in terms of how we’ve played throughout that period,” Root insisted. “And clearly, there’s always going to be things to do and things to work on.”
Whether the England and Wales Cricket Board shares that faith is another matter. Chair Richard Thompson and chief executive Richard Gould are expected in Sydney, where conversations about the winter – and the 2029 Ashes in particular – will gather pace. For McCullum and Key, a second win would help, though the pair remain contracted until 2027.
The immediate focus, however, is Sydney. England have avoided a whitewash, a modest but important step compared with 2013-14 and 2021-22. Stokes’s side still talk about playing “positively” – the shorthand for their aggressive style – yet the last fortnight has highlighted the need for flexibility. Chris Woakes’s line-and-length discipline proved decisive at Melbourne; Zak Crawley’s patient 71 on the second morning showed that leaving the ball can be as valuable as driving it.
Former captain Michael Vaughan, speaking on radio, felt the victory “takes a bit of heat out of the room”. Another pundit, Isa Guha, simply called it “a starting point for the next cycle”. England, you sense, will take that.
Root hopes the bounce from Melbourne extends into 2026 and beyond. “We’ve got to bottle the good things,” he said in the dressing room corridors. The Ashes might be gone, yet a tangible win, at last, offers something to cling to.
Sydney begins on 3 January. Rain is forecast, spin may play a part, and both camps have sore bodies. For England, though, the head space is lighter than it was a week ago.
