Joe Root arguably is England’s greatest batter of all time. No other English cricketer has scored more runs than Root in Tests, ODIs and in international cricket, but one thing that the 34-year-old Yorkshireman is still searching for is his first-ever Test win in Australia. Since making his Test debut for the Poms on December 13, 2012, in Ahmedabad against India, Root has played 17 Test matches in Australia but has not managed to win even one. In fact, he has lost 15 out of those 17 matches Down Under, which is a joint record of losing the most Test matches in an away country.
Root’s former England teammates Alastair Cook and James Anderson have also lost 15 Tests each in Australia as England players, but unlike Root, they have won a few matches
as well in Australia.
Players to lose most Test matches in Australia (non-Australian)
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | DEFEATS |
| Joe Root | England | 15 |
| Alastair Cook | England | 15 |
| James Anderson | England | 15 |
| Jack Hobbs | England | 14 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 14 |
| Brian Lara | West Indies | 13 |
| Wilfred Rhodes | England | 12 |
| Ian Bell | England | 11 |
| Stuart Broad | England | 11 |
| Rahul Dravid | India | 11 |
| Virat Kohli | India | 11 |
| Kevin Pietersen | England | 11 |
| Alec Stewart | England | 11 |
| Ben Stokes | England | 11 |
| Courtney Walsh | West Indies | 11 |
| Bob Willis | England | 11 |
Root travelled to Australia for the first time with the England Test team in 2013 to take part in the 2013-14 edition of the Ashes series. But in that series, English got whitewashed. He, however, played only matches in that assignment and lost all of them.
In the 2017-18 Ashes series Down Under, Root led England but lost four matches, and one game (in Melbourne) ended in a draw. In the 2021-22 Ashes, England once again played under Root’s leadership and again lost four matches, and one fixture ended in a draw.
Result of Tests played by Joe Root in Australia
| DATES | VENUE | RESULT | MARGIN | ROOT’s SCORES |
| November 21-24, 2013 | Brisbane | Defeat | 381 runs | 2, 26* |
| December 5-9, 2013 | Adelaide | Defeat | 218 runs | 15, 87 |
| December 13-17, 2013 | Perth (WACA) | Defeat | 150 runs | 4, 19 |
| December 26-29, 2013 | Melbourne | Defeat | 8 wickets | 24, 15 |
| November 23-27, 2017 | Brisbane | Defeat | 10 wickets | 15, 51 |
| December 2-6, 2017 | Adelaide | Defeat | 120 runs | 9, 67 |
| December 14-18, 2017 | Perth (WACA) | Defeat | Innings and 41 runs | 20, 14 |
| December 26-30, 2017 | Melbourne | Draw | — | 61 |
| January 4-8, 2018 | Sydney | Defeat | Innings and 123 runs | 83, 58* |
| December 8-11, 2021 | Brisbane | Defeat | 9 wickets | 0, 89 |
| December 16-20, 2021 | Adelaide | Defeat | 275 runs | 62, 24 |
| December 26-28, 2021 | Melbourne | Defeat | Innings and 14 runs | 50, 28 |
| January 5-9, 2022 | Sydney | Draw | — | 0, 24 |
| January 14-16, 2022 | Hobart | Defeat | 146 runs | 34, 11 |
| November 21-23, 2025 | Perth | Defeat | 8 wickets | 0, 8 |
| December 4-6, 2025 | Brisbane | Defeat | 8 wickets | 138*, 15 |
| December 17-21, 2025 | Adelaide | Defeat | 82 runs | 19, 39 |
In the ongoing series, England have suffered defeat in all three matches played so far.
Players to lose most away Tests in each country
| AWAY COUNTRY | PLAYER(S) | MATCHES LOST |
| Australia | Joe Root (England), James Anderson (England), Alastair Cook (England) | 15 |
| Bangladesh | Brendan Taylor (Zimbabwe) | 6 |
| England | Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies) | 11 |
| India | Joe Root (England), James Anderson (England), Ben Stokes (England) | 11 |
| New Zealand | Dimuth Karunaratne (Sri Lanka), Angelo Mathews (Sri Lanka), Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh) | 7 |
| Pakistan | Mohinder Amarnath (India), Sunil Gavaskar (India), Kapil Dev (India), Syed Kirmani (India), Dilip Vengsarkar (India), Gundappa Viswanath (India), Allan Border (Australia), Courtney Walsh (West Indies), Brian Lara (West Indies), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies), Ian Smith (New Zealand) Martin Crowe (New Zealand), Arjuna Ranatunga (Sri Lanka) | 5 |
| South Africa | Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies) | 12 |
| Sri Lanka | Habibul Bashar (Bangladesh), Mohammad Ashraful (Bangladesh) | 8 |
| West Indies | Jack Russell (England), Alec Stewart (England) | 8 |
| Zimbabwe | Habibul Bashar (Bangladesh), Manjural Islam (Bangladesh), Mohammad Ashraful (Bangladesh), Mushfiqur Rahman (Bangladesh) | 3 |
The world record for losing the most Test matches (home and away combined) is in the name of former West Indies batter Shivnarine Chanderpaul. The legendary left-handed batter played 164 Tests from March 1994 to May 2015 but suffered defeats in 77 of them.
Players to lose most Test matches
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | MATCHES LOST |
| Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies | 77 |
| James Anderson | England | 68 |
| Brian Lara | West Indies | 63 |
| Mushfiqur Rahim | Bangladesh | 63 |
| Joe Root | England | 63 |
Players to lose most Tests (away from home)
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | MATCHES LOST |
| Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies | 52 |
| Brian Lara | West Indies | 43 |
| James Anderson | England | 42 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 42 |
| Joe Root | England | 41 |
| Younis Khan | Pakistan | 41 |
He is followed by Anderson (68 defeats) and Brian Lara (63 defeats). Former Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim and Root have also lost 63 Test matches each.
