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England captain Joe Root accomplished few milestones on Day 3 of the first Test against Sri Lanka at the iconic Galle International Stadium.
The right-handed batsman scored his fourth double century in the longest format. During the 106th over of England’s innings, Root swept the ball towards mid-wicke♔t for a boundary toཧ reach the feat.
With that, the Yorkshire batsman became the fourth English cricketer to score maximum double centuries in the red-ball formatไ.
Most double tons in Tests for England:
- 7 – Wally Hammond
- 5 – Alastair Cook
- 4 – Leonard Hutton
- 4 – Joe Root
Even among the active players, Root en🍌tered the special league and became the third batsmen 🦂to score four double hundreds in the oldest format.
Most double centuries in Tests among active players:
- 7 – Virat Kohli
- 4 – Kane Williamson
- 4 – Joe Root *
- 3 – Mushfiqur Rahim
- 3 – Cheteshwar Pujara
- 3 – Steve Smith
Root reaches 8000 runs in Test cricket
During the 97th over bowled by Lasith Embuldeniya, Root attained another astonishing feat when he collected two runs in the deep mid-wicket area. The 30-year-old reached 8000 runs in Test cricket. He became t꧅he second-fastest to score 8000 Test runs for England.
Fastest to 8000 runs in Test cricket for England:
- 176 innings – Kevin Pietersen
- 178 innings – Joe Root
- 181 innings – Alastair Cook
- 189 innings – Graham Gooch
Here is how Twitter reacted:
Joe Root today became the first English captain to score two double centuries. Seven other English captains have managed one each!
Interestingly, Virat Kohli already ha💝s a record sevღen Test double centuries as a captain!— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman)
Joe Root becomes 7th batsman to score 8,000 Test runs for England; joining Alastair Cook, Graham Gooch, Alec Stewart, David Gower, Kevin Pieter🎃sen & Geoffrey Boycott
Root becomes 2nd fastest ꧑to score 8,000 Test runs for𒊎 England (178 innings); behind Pietersen (176) 🏴
— Fox Sports Lab (@FoxSportsLab)
Root has now played 50 sweeps (including reverse sweeps and slog sweeps) in this innings. That's the highest by any batsman in a single innings since records began in 2006.
— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst)
Joe Root has convert one 50 into a 200
This iꦆs the law of averages playing out at t♚he other end
— North Stand Gang – Wankhede (@NorthStandGang)
Age 32- Ishant Sharma Debut – 25th May 2007 – 97 Tests
Age 30- Joe Root Debut – 13th December 2012 – 98 TestsYes England play a lot and Ishant is a pacer.
— Gaurav Sundararaman (@gaurav_sundar)
Joe Root goes to his fourth Test double ton with a powerful sweep. 29൲1 balls. England lead by 241.
— Will Macpherson (@willis_macp)
Joe Root passes 8k Test runs. He and Williamson maybe 2 best orthodox batsmen in the world atm, as ꦗin textbook tekkers. Kohli, Smith, Marnus have a bit more going on.
Similar records v Aust
Root 24 Tests, 1694 runs at 40.33, 3 100s
Williamson 9 Tests, 699 runs at 41.11, 2 100s— Daniel Brettig 🏏 (@danbrettig)
Joe Root becomes the only England player to score more than one ꧂Test hu🍰ndred in Sri Lanka.
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket)
8000 Test runs for Joe Root and he just turned 30 years in last December 30th – one of the finest in this modern Era.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns)
Joe Root slams his fourth Test do﷽uble ton, his second against Sri Lanka 💥
His brilli🥀ant innings has taken England’s lead past 200 runs.
— ICC (@ICC)
There have been 379 double centuries where the boundaries have been counted. Only 17 o🦹f them have had fewer than 17 boundaries.
Root's 200 up – 16 fours 1 six.
— Michael Wagener (@Mykuhl)
Seriously impressive record for Joe Root. Of the seven Englishmen to score 8,000 Test runs, his average (a tick above 49) is the best of the lot. A Test hundred in Australia a notable absence from his CV, but hey, there's always next summer…
— Adam Burnett (@AdamBurnett09)
After 116 o�🐬�vers, England have scored 412/9, leading Sri Lanka by 277 runs.
