London, Jul 11 (PTI) Senior England batter Joe Root scored his 37th Test hundred on Friday to go past the tally of former India skipper Rahul Dravid and contemporary Steve Smith, both of whom have made 36 centuries in the traditional format.
Root achieved the feat on the second day of the third Test against India at Lord’s, when he flayed Jasprit Bumrah for a boundary wide of the third slip. However Bumrah had last laugh getting the former England skipper bowled for 104 off 199 balls with 10 boundaries to his credit.
Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar leads the list of century makers in traditional format with 51 hundreds, followed by Jacques Kallis (45), Ricky Ponting (41) and Kumar Sangakkara (38).
Root also joined Australian batter Smith as the batter with most hundreds against India in Test cricket — 11 tons apiece.
West Indian legends Sir Gary Sobers, Viv Richards and former Australian captain Ponting trail duo with eight hundreds against their name.
Root took 60 innings to reach that mark, while Smith needed just 46 innings.
The elegant right-hander also became the third English batter to score three successive hundreds at the Lord’s along with Michael Vaughan (2004-05) and Sir Jack ‘Master’ Hobbs (1912-1926). Among international batters, only Dilip Vengsarkar has the distinction of a hattrick of hundreds (1979, 1982, 1986) at the iconic venue.
Root also had made 143 and 103 in his two previous innings at this iconic venue.
The hundred against India was also Root’s eighth at this hallowed turf, highest by any batter in the history.
Former England skippers Vaughan and Graham Gooch are in second place with six hundreds each. PTI UNG KHS
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