TOP SPIN AT THE TEST: Joe Root became the second England player after Cook to reach 30
TOP SPIN AT THE TEST: Joe Root became the second England player to reach 30 Test centuries after Sir Alastair Cook… and it was the first time Jimmy Anderson wasn’t handed the new ball since 2009
- Joe Root’s 118* took England to 393-8 on day one of the Ashes at Edgbaston
- Ben Stokes declared late on after fifties for Zak Crawley and Jonny Bairstow
- Australia ended the day unscathed in response after an excellent day’s cricket
England surprised everyone at Edgbaston as they executed the earliest first-innings declaration in Ashes history.
Joe Root‘s scored an unbeaten 118 that helped to pull England from 176-5 to 393-8 before Ben Stokes called his players in to leave Australia facing 20 minutes of bowling to end the day.
The Aussies survived, finishing on 14-0, on a first day that lived up to the hype.
Mail Sport’s LAWRENCE BOOTH provides the big stats from the opening day.
Usman Khawaja (left) and David Warner (right) of Australia walk from the ground at stumps
This was Joe Root’s first Ashes century since his 130 at Trent Bridge in 2015. In between, 31 innings against Australia had brought him 12 half-centuries, but nothing greater than 89 at Brisbane in December 2021.
Root has now scored 2,134 Test runs against Australia, and during the course of his unbeaten 118 moved past Virat Kohli, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ken Barrington in that list.
Root became the second England player, after Alastair Cook, to reach 30 Test centuries, drawing level on the all-time list with Matthew Hayden and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
His Test record at Edgbaston now reads 787 at 71. Only Cook has more runs at the venue, with 869 at almost 58.
His four sixes were his joint-most in a Test innings. He also hit four during his unbeaten 182 against West Indies at St George’s, Grenada, in April 2015.
Joe Root needs just three more centuries to match the record set by Sir Alastair Cook
He hit two outrageous reverse scoops, both for six, on his way to an unbeaten 118
Root and Jonny Bairstow put on 121 for England’s sixth wicket, their 11th century stand in Tests. Only three England partnerships have managed more: Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe (15), Cook and Andrew Strauss (14), and Cook and Kevin Pietersen (13).
Only once have England scored more quickly in the first innings of an Ashes Test than their run-rate of 5.03 here. That was in 2005, also at Edgbaston, when they managed 407 runs on the opening day at 5.13 an over.
England scored 54 singles in the morning session – three times the normal average for the first session of a Test match.
The last time Jimmy Anderson did not take the new ball in a home Test was in 2009 against West Indies at Lord’s, where Andrew Strauss opened the bowling with Stuart Broad and off-spinner Graeme Swann.
It was the first time Jimmy Anderson (left) wasn’t handed the new ball since 2009
Bairstow and Moeen Ali became the first pair of batsmen to be out stumped on the first day of a Test in this country since Godfrey Evans stumped West Indians Clyde Walcott and Gerry Gomez off Roly Jenkins at Lord’s in 1950.
Australia selected Scott Boland ahead of Mitchell Starc partly over concern about how quickly England would score off Starc. Instead, Boland went at 6.14 an over – easily the most expensive innings of his Test career. Before yesterday, he had gone at just 2.31 an over in his eight Tests.