Joe Root’s frustrating Ashes series continued during the Boxing Day Test as he reached another half-century before failing to take advantage of his start.

In 64 Test matches, the 26-year-old has now registered 34 fifties and 13 hundreds. In comparison, Smith has 22 fifties and 22 centuries. “The greatest batsmen – guys like Virat Kohli and Steve Smith – have excellent conversion rates,” Hussain told the Daily Mail.

“They grasp the simple fact that you don’t win Tests with pretty 50s and 60s: you win them with big hundreds or even doubles. At some point, Root is going to have to sit down and ask himself whether he’s working out those percentages properly.”

“He’s got all the shots in the world. But if he wants to be remembered as one of the greats – and he has the talent – then he’ll need to be harder on himself.”

Hussain also said Root can learn from England opener and former skipper Alastair Cook, who put a dismal run behind him with a quite magnificent double hundred in Melbourne.

“You could hardly get two more different batsmen,” he said. “Cook has always had a dodgy technique, whereas Root’s is almost flawless. Root clearly has this in-built desire to entertain but Cook is there to score runs. He’s said himself that he’s not fussed with the aesthetics of the game, as Root obviously is – and a good thing too, because it makes cricket so much more watchable.”

Hussain added “It will be up to him [Root] now to work out which way he wants to go. Does he want to keep making attractive 60s and walking off furious with himself, or does he wants to take a leaf out of Cook’s book and go for the jugular?”