Stats: Root overtakes Cook to England's Test hundreds throne

A look at all the key numbers as Joe Root racked up a record 34th Test hundred in the ongoing second Test between England and Sri Lanka at Lord's.

34 hundreds scored by Joe Root is now the most for England in Tests, surpassing Alastair Cook's tally of 33. He now enters the top-10 list for most hundreds in the format, levelling with Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene and Younis Khan to take the joint sixth spot, only behind Sachin Tendulkar (51), Jacques Kallis (45), Ricky Ponting (41), Kumar Sangakkara (38) and Rahul Dravid (36). Root got to his 34th in his 265th innings, the second slowest after Dravid (268 innings).

Most hundreds in Tests for England

34 - Joe Root | 33 - Alastair Cook | 23 - Kevin Pietersen | 22 - Wally Hammond | 22 - Colin Cowdrey | 22 - Geoffrey Boycott | 22 - Ian Bell

9 batters have notched up 50 or more hundreds in international cricket. Root is the latest entrant to the list headed by Tendulkar with a landmark 100 tons, followed by Virat Kohli (80), Ponting (71), Sangakkara (63), Kallis (62), Hashim Amla (55), Jayawardene (54) and Lara (53).

7Test hundreds by Root at Lord's is the most for anyone at the Home of Cricket, and the most by any England batter at a venue. The overall record belongs to Jayawardene, who has scored 11 at SSC Colombo, followed by nine each by Don Bradman and Kallis at the MCG and Newlands, Cape Town respectively.

England batters with most Test hundreds at a venue

7 - Joe Root at Lord's | 6 - Graham Gooch at Lord's | 6 - Michael Vaughan at Lord's

4- Root became the fourth batter to register a hundred in both innings of a Test at Lord's, joining George Headley and former England captains Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan.

Hundreds in both innings of a Test at Lord's

Gooch's aggregate of 456 in the aforementioned game is the highest for anyone in a Test match.

2022 runs scored by Root at Lord's is an England record at any venue in Tests, surpassing Gooch's 2015. Overall, he became the sixth batter to aggregate 2,000 or more Test runs at a single ground.

2000-plus Test runs at a venue

6733 runs aggregated by Root in England is the most by anyone in the country, after he went past Cook (6568) during his 143-run knock in the first innings. Overall, it's the sixth-most scored by anyone in a country in Tests, the record being 7578 by Ricky Ponting in Australia.

4 - Root also became the fourth player to complete 200 catches as a fielder in Tests, after Dravid (210), Jayawardene (205) and Kallis (200). Root was involved in the first two wickets to fall in Sri Lanka's second innings, the catch to dismiss Pathum Nissanka off Olly Stone taking him to the milestone. Root completed 200 catches in 145 Tests, the fewest, surpassing Jayawardene (147).

The Fab Four's race to the top

2021 was an Annus mirabilis for Root on personal front, with him aggregating a staggering 1708 runs at an average of 61 in Tests, the third most in a calendar year after Mohammad Yousuf's 1788 in 2006 and Vivian Richards's 1710 in 1976. It marked a staggering turnaround for the former England skipper, who has doubled his hundreds count from 17 to 34 in less than four years. He is comfortably the leading run-scorer among active Test cricketers, and has a realistic chance to surpass Cook's tally of 12472 and break into the all-time top-five in the ongoing series itself.

Batting stats in Tests until 31 Dec 2020

Batting stats in Tests as on 31 Aug 2024

Joe Root in Tests since 2021

No other batter has scored more than nine Test hundreds since 2021, and the next best aggregate by a batter in this period is 2564 by Usman Khawaja.