Joe Root will play his 200th one-day international when England face Australia in the first ODI in Perth on Friday 13 November, becoming only the third England player to reach the milestone. The 35-year-old spoke to reporters in Perth on Wednesday ahead of the three-match series. Root made his ODI debut in India in early 2013 and played his 100th match in the format in Sydney. "I played my 100th ODI in Sydney and to be back here for my 200th game is obviously a huge privilege," he said. ## A record-breaking one-day career Root is England's most prolific ODI run-scorer, with 8,010 runs at an average of 50.37 and a strike rate of 87.81, including 20 hundreds and 49 half-centuries. Leg-spinner Adil Rashid is the only other current England player within touching distance of the landmark, on 165 games. The format has changed markedly since Root's debut, with batting becoming more explosive, but he has continued to flourish through accumulation and clever manipulation of the field. "As a player, you've just got to keep evolving with it and you've got to keep finding ways of understanding the rhythm of the game," he said. ## Preparation in Perth England have spent more than a week in Perth and warmed up with a 92-run win over Western Australia in a one-day match at the WACA. The series opener takes place at the fast and bouncy Optus Stadium, where only four ODIs have been played since the ground opened in 2018, with fast bowling dominating. England arrive after a tri-series in Pakistan against the hosts and Sri Lanka, in which they won one of four group matches. Root said the young squad wants to become more adaptable as it builds towards next year's World Cup in southern Africa. "We're quite young and inexperienced in many ways. So the more experiences we have on different surfaces, different situations in games, the more we'll learn, develop and become a more rounded team," he said. ## Series schedule The three ODIs are in Perth on Friday 13 November, Adelaide on Sunday 15 November and Hobart on Wednesday 18 November, followed by five Twenty20 internationals starting in Melbourne on Saturday 21 November. Root also declined to speculate on fresh claims about Australia's 2018 ball-tampering scandal made by Usman Khawaja in his autobiography, saying his focus was on the series. "I wasn't in that dressing room. I don't know what went on. I don't want to speculate," he said. "My focus is with this team right now and what we've got coming up."