Ashes: England captain Joe Root confident of Ashes ton



The England captain has scored two half-centuries in the series.

The venue is the Cricket Ground in Melbourne.

The Test Match Special and live text commentary are included in the coverage. The highlights show is on the iPlayer.

England captain Joe Root says he will bang out a hundred in the Boxing Day Test as the tourists plot a fightback.

England must win the final three matches to regain the urn after losing the first two Tests.

He wants to deliver a Christmas present to England fans.

"I'm in a good place with my batting," said Root.

I feel confident that I can score a hundred in these next three games. It's a brave thing to say but my conversation rate this year has not been an issue.

I would like to give a Christmas present to everyone who stays up, and I expect a response from our players.

There is plenty of motivation for the group and we are doing everything we can to make sure it is 2-1 by the time we leave here.

"If we perform anywhere like we can, we'll put them in an uncomfortable position, we'll push back and we'll find ourselves in a very different situation leaving this ground."

The Yorkshireman has scored two half-centuries, including a top score of 89 in the first Test, and has also taken two catches.

With 1, 630 Test runs in the calendar year of 2021, he became the leading Englishman and fourth on the all-time list.

He said that he understood how he wanted to score his runs. I just need to keep putting myself in those positions and have the bit between my teeth.

He has scored six centuries since January but will be chasing a first in Australia at the MCG.

He will be looking to get back to the number one Test batter in the world after being overtaken by Australia's Marnus Labuschagne last week.

He said it would be nice to have it back for Christmas.