Joe Root, the 33-year-old England national cricket team batting great, has officially established himself as the highest 100-hitting batsman in the history of English Test cricket, finally surpassing the legendary Alastair Cook. He has become the first batsman in cricket history to reach 34 centuries for England in Tests.
Root has been in outstanding form in the second Test match of the three-match series against the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. In the first innings of the match, he played a tremendous innings and scored 143 runs off 206 balls. He also hit 18 boundaries, before being dismissed by Milan Rathnayake in the 78th over.
However, Joe Root was not entirely satisfied with his first innings performance and was hungry for more runs. In the second innings too, Root was forced to come out to bat early after the top order failed, and once again he did not disappoint.
The right-handed batsman displayed great touch, played good strokes and smashed boundaries whenever needed. It was on the second ball of the 53rd over that Root hit a four off Lahiru Kumara to reach a historic three-figure milestone.
As soon as he reached the ton, he became the highest century scorer for England in the history of Test cricket. He was also extremely happy and jumped for joy and punched the air as the Lord’s crowd chanted “Roooooooooot” to celebrate his achievement.
Joe Root finished his innings with a score of 103 runs off 121 balls. He was dismissed by Lahiru Kumara in the 55th over and his innings helped England set a massive target of 483 runs for the Sri Lankan Lions.
Joe Root surpasses Alastair Cook; here is the complete list of records created by the batsman
The perfect angle for Joe Root’s record-breaking century doesn’t exist. pic.twitter.com/zXeojPXpF0
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 31, 2024
Root’s two tons at Lord’s were the first time in his career that he had achieved this feat. In total, he became only the fourth batsman to achieve this rare feat at the iconic venue.
The 33-year-old has been in absolutely incredible form since 2021 as he has hit 17 centuries which is the same number of tons he hit from his debut in 2012 till 2021 where he played 177 innings compared to 88 innings from 2021 to 2024.
Hundreds in both innings of a Test at Lord’s:
106 and 107 – George Headley (WI) vs. ENG, 1939
333 and 123 – Graham Gooch (ING) v IND, 1990
103 and 101* – Michael Vaughan (ENG) v WI, 2004
143 and 103* – Joe Root (ENG) vs SL, 2024
Root also broke Alastair Cook’s long-standing record to become England’s leading centurion in Test cricket with 34 tons to his name.
Most of the hundreds of tests for England:
34 – Joe Root
33 – Alastair Cook
23 – Kevin Pietersen
22-Wally Hammond
22 – Colin Cowdrey
22 – Boycott Geoffrey
22 – Ian Bell
England score the most hundreds in a Test
7 – Joe Root at Lord’s
6 – Graham Gooch at Lord’s
6 – Michael Vaughan at Lord’s
Meanwhile, Root has become the ninth batsman in the history of international cricket to complete a half-century of tons. He also equalled Azhar Ali’s record to become the player with the third-most centuries against Sri Lanka in Test cricket.
Most centuries in international cricket:
100 – Sachin Tendulkar (782 inns)
80 – Virat Kohli (591 inns)
71 – Ricky Ponting (668 inns)
63 – Kumar Sangakkara (666 inns)
62 – Jacques Kallis (617 inns)
55 – Hashim Amla (437 inns)
54 – Mahela Jayawardene (725 Inns)
53 – Brian Lara (521 Inns)
50 – Joe Root (455 inns)
Most tests against Sri Lanka
9. Sachin Tendulkar
8-Younis Khan
6 – Azhar Ali
6 – Root
