“Big hundred in Australia” – Michael Vaughan reveals what Joe Root needs to tick off as ex-skipper becomes leading Test century-getter for England

England’s superstar Joe Root is in the form of his life. Root scored a fantastic knock of 103 runs off 121 runs in the second innings of the second Test match against Sri Lanka at the Lord’s on Saturday. This was Root’s 34th Test century and he overtook former skipper Alastair Cook’s tally of centuries, which is now the most for England.

Root has a brilliant Test record but one piece missing in his impressive red-ball CV is a big hundred in the Australian conditions. The talisman has scored 892 runs in 14 Test matches while playing on the Australian soil at an average of 35.68. He hasn’t yet scored a century in Australia and his highest score is 89.

Michael Vaughan said on BBC Test match special, “The only thing that’s missing in his game is that big hundred in Australia. But I can’t imagine he won’t get three figures in the Ashes next year in Australia.”

Vaughan added that Root has been playing normally and he has been rotating the strike at regular intervals to score his runs all around the ground.

“It’s not been through crash, bang, wallop. It’s been through pure technique and ability. He is the greatest because he’s a wonderful role model as well. He’s a fantastic person and a great player. The opposition pretty much always have to have four fielders behind square on the off side because he’s just so good.”

“You take away four fielders and all of a sudden there are gaps everywhere else. He’s just playing normally, rotating the strike without taking any risk. How often do you look up and he has scored 25 in no time at all?”

At stumps on Day 3, Sri Lanka were 53-2 and need another 430 runs to win but more realistically, England require eight wickets to take an impregnable 2-0 lead in the series.