Joe Root responds to Matthew Hayden’s ‘I’ll walk n*de’ remarks

KARACHI: England’s experienced batter Joe Root on Wednesday broke his silence on legendary Australian batter Matthew Hayden’s startling bet on his Test century drought Down Under, stating, ‘it doesn't make a huge amount of difference’.

Despite being the second-highest run-scorer in Test history, Root has yet to score a century in Australia, with 892 runs at an average of 35.68.

However, since 2022, when Australia last hosted the blockbuster Test series, the right-handed batter has scored 15 centuries at an average of 64.64.

Root’s meteoric rise in Test cricket fuelled the buzz around his century drought in Australia, especially with the Ashes approaching.

While a few former Australian cricketers took a dig at Root over his century drought in Australia in a build-up to this year’s Ashes, legendary opening batter Hayden put all on the line, backing the 34-year-old to finally break the jinx this summer.

“I will walk n*de around the MCG if he doesn’t make a hundred this summer,” said Hayden during the All Over Bar The Cricket YouTube podcast last month.

With less than 50 days until the commencement of this year’s Ashes, Root finally addressed Hayden’s remarks, partially admitting that it had added extra pressure on him to break his Test century drought in Australia, but stressed that the upcoming tour is not about him but the England team as a whole.

"Maybe it is," Root said.

"At the end of the day this tour is not about me.

"If I am scoring runs and scoring heavily it gives us a great opportunity to win a series out in Australia."

Root, however, argued that whatever Hayden or other cricket pundits said to him would be forgotten after a few overs, but the outcome of the series would remain etched in history.

"They are going to say what they want to say anyway so why bother worrying about it. It doesn't make a huge amount of difference,” Root continued.

"When we look back in five years' time no-one is going to remember what Matthew Hayden said to me, Greg Blewett, Mark Waugh, whoever it is.

"They are going to look back on the scoreline and think that is a historic England win or not."