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England captain Joe Root accomplished few milestones on Day 3 of the first Test against Sri Lanka at the iconic Galle International Stadium.
The right-handed batsman scored his fourth double century in the longest format. During the 106th over of England’s innings, Root swept the ball towards mid-wicket for a boundary to reach the feat.
With that, the Yorkshire batsman became the fourth English cricketer to score maximum double centuries in the red-ball format.
Most double tons in Tests for England:
- 7 – Wally Hammond
- 5 – Alastair Cook
- 4 – Leonard Hutton
- 4 – Joe Root
Even among the active players, Root entered the special league and became the third batsmen to score four double hundreds in the oldest format.
Most double centuries in Tests among active players:
- 7 – Virat Kohli
- 4 – Kane Williamson
- 4 – Joe Root *
- 3 – Mushfiqur Rahim
- 3 – Cheteshwar Pujara
- 3 – Steve Smith
Root reaches 8000 runs in Test cricket
During the 97th over bowled by Lasith Embuldeniya, Root attained another astonishing feat when he collected two runs in the deep mid-wicket area. The 30-year-old reached 8000 runs in Test cricket. He became the second-fastest to score 8000 Test runs for England.
Fastest to 8000 runs in Test cricket for England:
- 176 innings – Kevin Pietersen
- 178 innings – Joe Root
- 181 innings – Alastair Cook
- 189 innings – Graham Gooch
Here is how Twitter reacted:
Joe Root today became the first English captain to score two double centuries. Seven other English captains have managed one each!
Interestingly, Virat Kohli already has a record seven Test double centuries as a captain!#SLvENG #SLvsENG— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) January 16, 2021
Joe Root becomes 7th batsman to score 8,000 Test runs for England; joining Alastair Cook, Graham Gooch, Alec Stewart, David Gower, Kevin Pietersen & Geoffrey Boycott
Root becomes 2nd fastest to score 8,000 Test runs for England (178 innings); behind Pietersen (176)#SLvENG 🏴 pic.twitter.com/nBm6npLk8Z
— Fox Sports Lab (@FoxSportsLab) January 16, 2021
Root has now played 50 sweeps (including reverse sweeps and slog sweeps) in this innings. That's the highest by any batsman in a single innings since records began in 2006. #SLvEng
— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) January 16, 2021
Joe Root has convert one 50 into a 200
This is the law of averages playing out at the other end#SLvENG
— North Stand Gang – Wankhede (@NorthStandGang) January 16, 2021
Age 32- Ishant Sharma Debut – 25th May 2007 – 97 Tests
Age 30- Joe Root Debut – 13th December 2012 – 98 TestsYes England play a lot and Ishant is a pacer. #ENGvSL
— Gaurav Sundararaman (@gaurav_sundar) January 16, 2021
Joe Root goes to his fourth Test double ton with a powerful sweep. 291 balls. England lead by 241. #SLvENG
— Will Macpherson (@willis_macp) January 16, 2021
Joe Root passes 8k Test runs. He and Williamson maybe 2 best orthodox batsmen in the world atm, as in textbook tekkers. Kohli, Smith, Marnus have a bit more going on.
Similar records v Aust
Root 24 Tests, 1694 runs at 40.33, 3 100s
Williamson 9 Tests, 699 runs at 41.11, 2 100s— Daniel Brettig 🏏 (@danbrettig) January 16, 2021
Joe Root becomes the only England player to score more than one Test hundred in Sri Lanka.#SLvENG pic.twitter.com/7RzG4et1EC
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) January 15, 2021
8000 Test runs for Joe Root and he just turned 30 years in last December 30th – one of the finest in this modern Era.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) January 16, 2021
Joe Root slams his fourth Test double ton, his second against Sri Lanka 💥
His brilliant innings has taken England’s lead past 200 runs.
#SLvENG pic.twitter.com/6D8ZW4Padt
— ICC (@ICC) January 16, 2021
There have been 379 double centuries where the boundaries have been counted. Only 17 of them have had fewer than 17 boundaries.
Root's 200 up – 16 fours 1 six. #SLvENG
— Michael Wagener (@Mykuhl) January 16, 2021
Seriously impressive record for Joe Root. Of the seven Englishmen to score 8,000 Test runs, his average (a tick above 49) is the best of the lot. A Test hundred in Australia a notable absence from his CV, but hey, there's always next summer… #SLvENG
— Adam Burnett (@AdamBurnett09) January 16, 2021
After 116 overs, England have scored 412/9, leading Sri Lanka by 277 runs.
