Alastair Cook heaped praise on his former teammate Joe Root after the latter broke his record for scoring the most Test hundreds for England on Saturday, August 31.
Root smashed 103 off 121 deliveries on day three to help England post a gigantic total of 483 for Sri Lanka to chase in the fourth innings. Root's 103 was his 34th Test hundred and he went past Alastair Cook's tally of 33 centuries which was the most by any English cricketer in Test history.
Cook hailed Root as "simply England's greatest" and also mentioned that he deserves to own the record.
"He is quite simply England's greatest, and it's absolutely right that he should have this record, on his own," Cook said on commentary for the BBC's Test Match Special. "Take it in, Joe. We are watching a genius.
"I don't think there's a batsman that I can remember watching play [who shares] the sense of inevitability about scoring runs that Joe Root gives off. I called it when he was on about 6 today, that he was going to get 100. I know he's in great form, but it's just a pleasure to watch a master, a craftsman at work."
Though Cook is singing the praises for Root, his first impression of a teenage Root on his List-A debut for Yorkshire against Essex wasn't the same in 2009.
"He couldn't get the ball off the square," Cook recalled. "Everyone said, 'he's a good player', but I didn't see that."
However, in three years, Root made Cook change his opinion about him as he took to Test cricket like fish to water during his international debut in the final match of England's tour of India in Nagpur in 2012.
"I saw someone mentally ready to play Test cricket," Cook recollected. "The only check was when he walked out to bat for the first time, how he would handle it.
"The game was in the balance and he walked out to bat with his England cap on, looking 13, massive smile on his face. I watched his first few balls, and I was like, 'This bloke is here to stay.' I honestly said, 'He's scoring 10,000 runs.' I don't know who I said it to, but I know that I said it."
