Global wheat production is extending to dryland and tropical environments prone to drought and heat stress due to breeding and deploying new-generation ideotypes with desirable product profiles. However, yield gains are low and stagnant under these environments, attributable to abiotic stresses, primarily drought. Genotypes with drought-adaptive root traits will enhance grain yield and productivity under dryland and drought-stress conditions. Root traits are valued and related to high biomass production, nutrient and water extraction, ultimately boosting yield and yield components, notably in dryland agro-ecologies. Hence, the objective of the current review is to explore and document the opportunities, challenges and progress in wheat breeding targeting novel root traits to enhance drought adaptation and improve productivity under dryland agro-ecologies. The review presents a detailed account of the available genetic resources of wheat possessing desirable root traits for breeding programs. This is followed by outlines on the genetic gains for breeding for wheat root system architecture traits and the potential of high-throughput phenotyping techniques. Challenges and limitations on root phenotyping methods are presented. Lastly, the paper discusses the potential utilities of molecular breeding approaches, including marker-assisted selection, genomic-assisted breeding, and next-generation sequencing for accelerated breeding targeting root system architecture traits. The review can guide wheat breeders and agronomists in developing drought-tolerant varieties by exploiting the root system and climate-smart wheat varieties for moisture-deficient production environments.