The former England captain, Joe Root has earned a huge feat in the history of Test cricket, by equaling the Indian opening batter Rohit Sharma with most international centuries among active players. He achieved the new record during the fourth day of the second Test against West Indies at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.
In this process, Joe Root has also equaled former New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and Australia leader Steven Smith for most centuries by the fab four in the history of the longest format of the game.
The Yorkshire batter had a terrific spell of batting during Lord’s Test in the three-match series, where he missed out on getting his 32nd Test century, after falling short by 32 runs.
Joe Root breaks multiple records with 32nd Test century
One of the major factors of the series that England kept looking at was the form of their premier batter Joe Root. In the first innings of the Test, the 33-year-old looked out of touch as he wasn’t getting the rhythm.
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There was a point in time when he missed an absolute peach of a delivery from Jayden Seales to which the batter looking to play the pull shot, put the ball in the air. It was such a unlike shot from a batter who loves to play the format in his style, by putting up hard work and nailing those runs towards the end.
Even after crossing the 400-run mark in the first innings, the Ben Stokes-led side conceded a 41-run lead to West Indies and felt the pressure. Under gloomy conditions, the ball was swinging, and then from a strong position with the bat in the second innings, they lost two quick wickets to lose the momentum in the game.
But for the entire innings, Joe Root didn’t put a foot wrong at all, displaying some of his gorgeous shots all around the park. When the planning from the Kraig Braithwaite-led side was to go short, the batter was already on his back foot with a baseball style of play to nail the shots.
He celebrated his 32nd Test and ended with a knock of 122 runs, with the help of 10 boundaries at a very aggressive strike rate of 70, which is quite good in the longest format of the game. In this process, Joe Root also became the eighth-highest run-getter of the format with 11940 runs in 260 innings, at an average of 50, going past the Caribbean legend Shiv Narayan Chanderpaul (11867).
When it comes to most centuries being scored in Tests against the West Indies, Root joins the elite list of five players with six hundreds. This was also his 48th century in International cricket, equaling him with Indian opener Rohit Sharma.
Joe Root stays only behind Virat Kohli in the list of most centuries among active players, as the Indian batter has drilled 80 centuries across the three formats, which is something unlikely to be broken shortly.
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The former England captain is also just one Test century away from equaling Sir Alastair Cook as the most hundreds in the longest format of the game. If he keeps on playing for the next five to six years, with the same form and momentum, he could think of targeting Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of 15921 runs in this format.
For now, the aim for Root is to deliver another superb innings for England during the final and third Test of the series, starting from July 26, at Edgbaston, Birmingham.