Before the second Test of the The Ashes, former Australian opening great Matthew Hayden — now a commentator — made a humorous yet outrageous promise: if Joe Root failed to score a Test century during England’s Australia tour, Hayden said he would walk nude around the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Root, despite his illustrious career, had never managed to convert his many starts in Australia into a three-figure score down under. Over multiple tours, the Australian soil had stubbornly denied him a century.
Yet in the second Ashes Test — a day/night match played with a pink ball in Brisbane — Root finally ended his drought. On Day 1, he walked in after two early England dismissals. He steadied the innings with a determined opening session alongside Zak Crawley, then stitched together key partnerships with Harry Brook and Ben Stokes. Despite late-day wickets, Root’s late surge helped England post 325/9, with Root finishing on a well-crafted 135 off 202 balls.
A Light-Hearted Celebration
After the landmark knock, Hayden posted a congratulatory video via the official England Cricket account on X (Twitter), in which he himself joked that no one had “more skin in the game” than him — literally.
“Good day, Joe. Congratulations, mate, on the hundred here in Australia. Took you a while, and there was no one that had more skin in the game than me, literally. I was backing you in for the hundred in a good way. So mate, congratulations. 10 fifties and finally a hundred. You little ripper, mate. Have a beauty and bloody enjoy it,” Hayden said in the video.
In another clip circulated by Australian broadcasters, Hayden was shown exuberantly celebrating in the commentary box — with a cheeky caption: “No Nude Run Needed.”
What Root’s Century Means
Root’s 135 wasn’t just a big score — it was the breaking of a significant psychological barrier. In a place where he had long struggled to convert starts into hundreds, the achievement seemed to lift a weight off. It ended years of speculation about his inability to “seal the deal.”
For England, it provided a critical platform: despite early trouble with two early wickets, the innings was stabilized and restored hope for a competitive total. For Root, personally, it meant redemption — and for Hayden, a chance to save himself from an embarrassing dare.
In short: Root finally got his first Test century in Australia, and Hayden’s audacious promise turned into a playful celebration rather than the “nude run” he once threatened. The cricket world got both a proper century and a humorous moment to enjoy.
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