England batter Joe Root smashed his 47th international hundred to go level with India skipper Rohit Sharma and former South Africa batter AB de Villiers. Root got to the three-figure mark in the final session of Day 1 in the fourth Test against India at the JSCA International Stadium in Ranchi.
After a string of failures in the ongoing Test series, Root finally found form in Ranchi, scoring his 31st Test hundred. Root swayed away from the ‘Bazball’ approach on Day 1 to register his first fifty-plus score in their series against India.
This was Root’s 13th Test hundred away from home and his third in India. In fact, he went level with former captain Andrew Strauss to register the second-most Test hundreds by an English batter in India. He is now only behind former skipper Alastair Cook (5) in terms of this metric.
In fact, Root also went level with legendary Australia captain Ricky Ponting to register the most fifty-plus scores against India. This was his 20th fifty-plus score against India, scoring over 2,600 runs in 52 Test matches at an average of over 57. With this knock, he registered his 91st fifty-plus score in Tests for England, overtaking Cook for the record.
