England batting maestro Joe Root continues to create milestones. Root, who is having a sensational time with the bat, was bestowed with England's Player of the Series award after his team's 2-1 Test series win over Sri Lanka at home.
He has been on a run-scoring spree, making centuries and surpassing legends for fun during the recent home summer of England. During six Tests against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in the summer, the former English skipper racked up 666 runs in six matches with three centuries. Deservingly, he was named England's Player of the Series and Player of the Summer.
With his sixth Player of the Series award, Root has surpassed Sachin Tendulkar in the list of players with Man of the Series honours in Tests. The 33-year-old has also surpassed England's Graham Gooch, Andrew Strauss and James Anderson to win the most such honours for his country. Overall, he is sixth in the list, still much behind the leader Muttiah Muralitharan's all-time record of 11 Player of the Series awards.
Most Player of the Series awards in Test cricket:
1 - Muttiah Muralitharan: 11 Player of the Series awards
2 - Ravichandran Ashwin: 10 Player of the Series awards
3 - Jacques Kallis: 9 Player of the Series awards
4 - Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Shane Warne: 8 Player of the Series awards
5 - Wasim Akram and Shivnarine Chanderpaul: 7 Player of the Series awards
6 - Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Steve Waugh and Joe Root: 6 Player of the Series awards
Root had 11736 runs and 31 centuries in Test cricket. Following these two series, he surpassed Mahela Jayawardene (11814), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (11867), Brian Lara (11953) and Kumar Sangakkara (12400) in the list of most runs in Test cricket. He currently occupies the sixth spot in this tally with 12402 runs. In the list of most Test tons, Root has gone past Steve Waugh (32), Steve Smith (32), Kane Williamson (32) and Alastair Cook (33) and now has 34 Test centuries.
