Joe Root etched his name into cricket history as he posted a new England record of 34 Test hundreds in the second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord's.
The remarkable achievement was celebrated as Root reached three figures for a second time in the match, backing up his 143 in the first innings with a century on the third day. Root, who had equaled the previous England record of 33 centuries held by the legendary Alastair Cook in the first innings, cut Lahiru Kumara for his 10th four after facing 111 balls to move past Cook. It was also the fastest Test hundred by Root with the mark coming from 111 balls.
This was the 145th Test of Root's career compared to Cook's 161-match career, further underlining Root's incredible consistency and skill.
Aside from beating Cook's record, a seventh Test hundred at Lord's put Root out in a class of his own with most Test centuries at the iconic venue, moving past England greats Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan, each of whom hit six hundreds at the 'Home of Cricket'.
Root also became only the fourth cricketer, after West Indies' George Headley, Gooch, and Vaughan, to score hundreds in both innings of a Test at Lord's. Though Gooch's aggregate of 456 runs against India at Lord's in 1990 remains the highest in a single Test by any batsman, Root's latest hundred did a bit more to establish him as one of the best batsmen England has ever had.
This 34th Test century for Root also took him into joint-sixth place on the all-time list of Test century-makers, an elite group headed by India great Sachin Tendulkar, who owns the record with 51 hundreds in 200 Tests. At 33, Root is alone among these star cricketers as the only active one, underlining further his continued contribution to the game.
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