Former Aussie opener Matthew Hayden has never been one to play it safe, not with the bat, and definitely not with his words.
And now, he has set social media alight with a prediction as bold as his batting, this time about England’s star batter Joe Root ahead of the upcoming Ashes series, which will take place Down Under.
Speaking to his co-hosts on the All Over Bar The Cricket podcast, the 53-year-old cricket legend confidently predicted that Joe Root will finally score a Test century on Australian soil during the Aussie summer at the end of this year. All appeared normal until Hayden added the kicker: if Root doesn’t, he’ll walk stark naked around the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Adding fuel to the fire, Hayden’s daughter Grace, herself a sports presenter, jumped in on social media with a cheeky plea to Root: “Please score a century this time.” Fans from both sides of the Ashes divide piled in, some egging Root on, others gleefully imagining Hayden’s frosty lap of the ‘G.
Joe Root, one of modern cricket’s finest batsmen, boasts an incredible record of 13,543 runs in Test cricket, including 39 centuries. His record-breaking run continued this year, as he surpassed legends like Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis to become the second-highest Test run-scorer ever. Despite his remarkable statistics, Root has surprisingly never scored a century in Australia. In 14 matches on Australian soil, he has scored 892 runs at an average of 35.68, with a highest score of 89, achieved in 2021.
The Ashes is already cricket’s most heated rivalry, but now there’s an extra subplot: will Root finally break his Aussie hoodoo, or will Matthew Hayden have to bare all for the cause?
One way or another, the stakes for the 2025 Ashes series have just gotten higher.