Joe Root, who is arguably England’s greatest cricketer of all time, created an unwanted record of losing the most away Tests in one country on Thursday (January 8). England’s humiliating defeat by 7 wickets
against Australia in the fifth and final Test of the 2025-26 Ashes series played at Sydney Cricket Ground was Root’s 16th Test defeat in Australia. No player in the 149-year-old history of Test cricket has lost 16 or more away Tests in one country.
Root was previously tied level with former England stars James Anderson and Alastair Cook, who have lost 15 Tests each in Australia, but with England’s defeat in Sydney on Thursday, he becomes the sole owner of the No. 1 position.
Players to lose most away Tests in each country
| AWAY COUNTRY | PLAYER(S) | MATCHES LOST |
| Australia | Joe Root (England) | 16 |
| 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 |
Root, who played a superb knock of 160 runs in the first innings of the Sydney Test, has played a total of 19 Tests in England and ended up losing 16 times. He has only managed to win one Test in Australia so far, and that rare win came during the Boxing Day Test played at Melbourne Cricket Ground last year.
Players to lose most Test matches in Australia (non-Australian)
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | DEFEATS |
| Joe Root | England | 16* |
| Alastair Cook | England | 15 |
| James Anderson | England | 15 |
| Jack Hobbs | England | 14 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 14 |
| Brian Lara | West Indies | 13 |
| Ben Stokes | England | 12* |
| 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 |
| 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 four 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.
In the 2025-26 Ashes series, England have suffered defeats in four out of five matches.
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 |
| December 26-27, 2025 | Melbourne | Win | 4 wickets | 0, 15 |
| January 4-8, 2026 | Sydney | Defeat | 5 wickets | 160, 6 |
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.
He is followed by Anderson (68 defeats) and Root is now third on the list with 64 defeats in 163 Tests played so far.
Players to lose most Test matches
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | TESTS PLAYED | MATCHES LOST |
| Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies | 164 | 77 |
| James Anderson | England | 188 | 68 |
| Joe Root | England | 163 | 64* |
| Brian Lara | West Indies | 131 | 63 |
| Mushfiqur Rahim | Bangladesh | 100 | 63 |
Chanderpaul also holds the record for losing the most Tests away from home. He is followed by Lara, and Root is now joint-third in the list.
Players to lose most Tests (away from home)
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | TESTS PLAYED | MATCHES LOST |
| Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies | 83 | 52 |
| Brian Lara | West Indies | 66 | 43 |
| Joe Root | England | 79 | 42* |
| James Anderson | England | 82 | 42 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 106 | 42 |
| Younis Khan | Pakistan | 99 | 41 |
Root, who is less than 2000 runs away from becoming the highest run-getter in Test cricket, is unlikely to travel to Australia again for an Ashes series. He, however, might feature in the one-off Test staged at Melbourne next year to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Test cricket.
