Joe Root played another match-winning knock as England registered a hard-fought win against Sri Lanka in the opening Test at Old Trafford on August 24. Joe Root scored an unbeaten 62 runs to help England chase down a 205-run target with five wickets remaining on Day 4.
The veteran cricketer also entered the record books with his 64th Test fifty and 96th fifty-plus score in red-ball cricket. He surpassed the legendary figures Rahul Dravid and Alan Border in the list of players with the most fifties in Test cricket and is now only behind Sachin Tendulkar and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
The world no.1 ranked ICC batter has been in excellent form in Tests since Brendon McCullum took charge of the Three Lions. Root has been the leading run-scorer in the ICC World Test Championship and also completed 12000 runs in Tests recently.
Root now boasts 12,131 runs in 144 Test matches with the help of 32 centuries and 64 fifties. He is only 341 runs behind surpassing Alastair Cook's all-time record for the most Test runs. Root is also the highest run-getter in Tests among the active cricketer with Australia's Steve Smith being the second-highest with 9685 runs.
Most fifties in Test cricket
- Sachin Tendulkar - 68 fifties in 329 Test innings
- Shivanarine Chanderpaul - 66 fifties in 280 Test innings
- Joe Root - 64 fifties in 263 Test innings
- Rahul Dravid - 63 fifties in 286 Test innings
- Alan Border - 63 fifties in 265 Test innings
Most 50+ scores in Test cricket
- Sachin Tendulkar - 119
- Jacques Kallis - 103
- Ricky Ponting - 103
- Rahul Dravid - 99
- Joe Root - 96
- Shivnarine Chanderpaul - 96
Apart from Cook, the 33-year-old Root is only behind five cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Kumar Sangakkara in the most runs record list and is tipped to past these names considering his form in Test cricket
