England's Joe Root became the first captain from a visiting team to score a double century in New Zealand. He achieved the feat during the fourth day of the ongoing second Test at Hamilton. This was Root's third double-hundred in Test cricket -- and his first outside England. He played a gritty innings to reach the double-ton, playing 412 deliveries.
Root had been going through a rough patch throughout the year. Before the series against New Zealand, he had amassed only 535 runs in 9 Test matches at an average of 29.72. His only century of the year had come against West Indies in February. This was followed by poor outings in the one-off Test against Ireland, and the Ashes series.
In the second Test, Root arrived at the crease after England found themselves in a tricky position, having lost two wickets within the first ten overs. Root, alongside Rory Burns (101), stabilized the visitors' innings before putting them in a commanding position.
Ollie Pope (75) forged another important partnership with Root, steering England to lead in the first innings. Root was eventually dismissed on 226 by Mitchell Santner.
Joe Root eclipsed West Indies' Chris Gayle (197) to register the highest score by a visiting captain in New Zealand. He is also the fourth England captain to score a double hundred in an overseas Test. Len Hutton (205, in Kingston 1954), Ted Dexter (205, in Karachi 1962) and Alastair Cook (263, in Abu Dhabi 2015) have scored double-tons for England as captains
Among English batsmen, Graham Thorpe was the last batsman to score a double century in New Zealand. He remained unbeaten on 200 in Christchurch in 2002.
Overall, this is the first double-century in New Zealand by an overseas player since Shakib Al Hasan slammed 217 in Wellington in January 2017.
