Chennai Test: Joe Root becomes 15th England cricketer to play 100 Tests

Before the start of the first Test where England opted to bat, Root had scored 8,249 runs in 99 Test matches, including 19 hundred and 49 half-centuries. He is the fourth-highest Test scorer for England, only behind Alastair Cook (12,472 runs), Graham Gooch (8,900 runs) and Alec Stewart (8,463 runs).

Joe Root on Friday became the 15th England cricketer to play 100 Test matches for his country. He achieved the feat during the first Test of the four-match series against India here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

Before the start of the first Test where England opted to bat, Root had scored 8,249 runs in 99 Test matches, including 19 hundred and 49 half-centuries. He is the fourth-highest Test scorer for England, only behind Alastair Cook (12,472 runs), Graham Gooch (8,900 runs) and Alec Stewart (8,463 runs).

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Incidentally, Root became only the third cricketer to play both his first and 100th Test match in the same visiting country. Root had made his debut in India in 2012 in a series which England won 2-1.

Karl Hooper and Kapil Dev are the other two cricketers to make their Test debut and 100th Test in the same visiting country. While Kapil made his debut and played his 100th Test both in Pakistan, Hooper did the same in India.

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Cook holds the record for playing most number of Test matches for England. He played 166 Tests and is followed by James Anderson (158), Stuart Broad (144), Stewart (133), Ian Bell (118), Gooch (118), David Gower (117), Michael Atherton (115), Colin Cowdrey (114), Geoffrey Boycott (108), Kevin Pietersen (104), Ian Botham (102) and Root (100).

India skipper Virat Kohli earlier congratulated Root on his achievement and the England skipper as one of the big impact players in international cricket.

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"Firstly, big congratulations to Joe. Playing 100 Tests is no small achievement and he can be very proud of being in this journey and continuing to do so. He has got many years of cricket still left in him. I have got good memories of watching Joe on the international scene," Kohli had said on the eve of the first Test.

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