'One of the all-time greats' - Social media reacts as Joe Root becomes England's most prolific Test centurion
Joe Root and Test centuries - a common sight every time England plays in whites, and the ball’s colour gets red or pink. You open the scoreboard, and Root is at the crease and most probably in three figures or near it.
On Saturday (August 31), Root became England’s most prolific century-maker when he backed away and slapped a short-length delivery through the cover region for a boundary. It was his 34th Test century, the most ever by an Englishman, going past Alastair Cook, who was on the ground when the moment arrived and was happy to see his record broken.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 moment.
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 31, 2024
Joe Root goes above Sir Alastair Cook to score the most Test hundreds for England 🐐 pic.twitter.com/cD5aCXl1Id
It was Root’s twin centuries; he also made one in the first innings, becoming only the fourth batter to score a hundred in both digs at Lord’s, the Home of Cricket. It was also the fastest in his Test career, taking only 111 balls to put the pressure back on Sri Lanka.
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He sits with four other giants to 34 Test centuries; Sunil Gavaskar, Mahela Jayawardene, Brian Lara, and Younis Khan being other batters with as many 100s. Root has broken several records over his career and will surely go past these batters and add more to his tally in the coming times.
Reactions galore as Joe Root becomes England’s best Test centurion
Since 2021, Joe Root has been unstoppable and ran ahead of other batters in Fab4 in Test cricket. He has amassed as many as 17 centuries in 48 Tests in this duration and has the most Test hundreds at Lord’s (7), going past Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan, who had six tons each.
He is the world’s No.1 Test batter, showing why; the consistency has been more than marvellous. He has redefined the law of averages and established himself as one of the best ever to don the whites.
The congratulatory posts from former cricketers and fans have been aplenty, with all of them in awe of Root’s mastery. We have curated a few for this section below.
Here are some reactions:
Joe Root loves ‘marking’ every series with at least one hundred, doesn’t he? He has done this 9 times in the last 10 series! 👏👏#ENGvsSL
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) August 31, 2024
Ridiculed during his tough phase and now he is on the top laughing at his counterparts..go for greatness Joe Root 👑
— Harsh (@bitter_parker_) August 31, 2024
Root Surpassed Cook's tally of test 100s with him present in the Comm Box. Sachin (35 100s) also surpassed Sunny G's tally of test tons with him being in the Comm Box. Also, Sunny G had gifted Sachin 34 champagne bottles for equalling his world record of Test centuries (34)
— Prithvi (@Prithvi10_) August 31, 2024
10 Tests against India and Australia next year will give more of an idea as to whether Joe Root will go on and surpass Sachin Tendulkar's record of 15,921 Test runs.
— CricBlog ✍ (@cric_blog) August 31, 2024
Root is a great chance of achieving it, but those chances will increase even further with strong performances in…
Root is still not finished. He doesn't seem to be content with what he has achieved in this test so far, including the twin hundreds! He has just held on to his 200th catch in his test career with the one he caught to dismiss Pathum Nissanka.
— Roshan Abeysinghe (@RoshanCricket) August 31, 2024
Joe root after surpassing fab four In Test centuries pic.twitter.com/OhAhPYaAVl
— memes_hallabol (@memes_hallabol) August 31, 2024
Root is the best batter in the world currently and it’s not even close to being close
— jimbo (@cricketjim1) August 31, 2024
To stop Joe Root from scoring multiple centuries in a Test, teams should try losing by an innings.
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) August 31, 2024
It's honestly crazy to think that Kohli was on 27 centuries and Root was on 17 in 2021 and in 2024 Root's on 34 and Kohli's on 29. Literally doubled his centuries while Kohli made just two more. How did this even happen?
— Heisenberg ☢ (@internetumpire) August 31, 2024
34 test centuries. 12000+ test runs. Averaging over 50 after 145 test matches. There's no doubt about it - Joe Root is one of the all time greats, not just for England, but around the world. A phenomenal player. #ENGvSL
— Aatif Nawaz (@AatifNawaz) August 31, 2024
Joe Root (12377) is on the brink of breaking Kumar Sangakkara’s record (12400) and will become the sixth leading run-scorer in the history of Test cricket. At this rate, Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 15921 runs doesn’t look unbreakable, either.
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