2 weeks Ago By Gaurav Tripathi
England's batting superstar Joe Root shattered a plethora of Test records en route to his sixth double-ton in Tests. He achieved the feat on the fourth day of the ongoing first Test against Pakistan in Multan. Root is now the Englishman with the second-most Test double-tons as he broke the tie with Alastair Cook (5).
He earlier notched up his 35th Test century. Root's century leads England past 100 Root arrived to bat in the final session of Day 2 and returned unbeaten on 32. He and Zak Crawley (78) steered England past 100 on Day 3 morning.
Despite Crawley's dismissal in the 25th over, Root continued his strong performance and reached his century off 167 balls after lunch. Root further added 136 runs with Ben Duckett (84) before registering a double-century stand with fellow centurion Harry Brook. Root becomes England's highest run-scorer in Test cricket Root's double-century wasn't his only achievement of his knock.
He also became England's highest run-scorer in Test cricket, going past Alastair Cook's record of 12,472 runs. In terms of overall Test runs scored by players from all countries, only Sachin Tendulkar (15,921), Ricky Ponting (13,378), Jacques Kallis (13,289) and Rahul Dravid (13,288) have scored more than Root. Root matches Dravid's record of 50-plus scores Root has also equaled Dravid's record of scoring 50 or more runs in a Test match 99 times.
This makes him joint third on the list of players with most 50+ scores in Test cricket. Only Tendulkar (119), Kallis (103) and Ponting (103) have done this more times than Root and Dravid. This further cements Root's status as one of the most consistent performers in Test cricket.
Root ties for most Test centuries in 2024 Root's century against Pakistan was his fifth in 2024, equaling Sri Lanka 's Kamindu Mendis for the most Test hundreds scored this year. This was also Root's first century in Pakistan, despite having played three previous Tests in the country. His performance on Wednesday was marked by a muted celebration as he acknowledged applause from the England dressing room and kissed the badge on his helmet.
Root only behind Wally Wally Hammond As mentioned, this was Root's sixth double-century in Tests. Wally Hammond (7) is the only Englishman to have accomplished this mark more times. Root's tally of 35 Test tons is also the most for an England player.
He also went past legends Younis Khan, Sunil Gavaskar , Brian Lara, and Mahela Jayawardene , each of whom has 34 tons..
