England captain Joe Root continues to be an outstanding player in Indian cricket and is approaching the records of the legendary 'God of Cricket' Sachin Tendulkar. On Thursday, August 20, in the match against Pakistan held in Leeds (Headingley), he reached parity with Tendulkar in one statistic.
Specifically, Root has matched the great Tendulkar in the number of half-centuries (68) scored in Test cricket. It is expected that he will soon surpass this record as well.
On this day, Root scored 66 runs for England. Thanks to this, England reached a score of 366/8 by the end of the second day of the match in the first innings. The third day of play is scheduled for Friday, August 21. Besides Root, Jordan Clark (73), Harry Brook (91), and Danny Lawrence (51) also scored a half-century.
It is worth noting that the Pakistan team was only dismissed for 171 runs. Now, England's task on the third day is to significantly increase the lead in the first innings, exceeding the 200-run advantage. In turn, Pakistan needs to take back the two wickets lost by England as soon as possible and demonstrate a completely different game in their second innings.
There are three main records that Root may break soon:
Sachin Tendulkar scored 15,921 runs in 200 Test matches and holds 51 centuries. Joe Root, having played 167 Test matches (the second innings of the match in Leeds is not yet complete), has currently scored 14,180 runs. This gap will also soon disappear.
Joe Root currently has 41 Test centuries, which matches the number of centuries scored by Sachin. Root is also capable of breaking this record.
The third record that Root is likely to break within a few days is the highest number of half-centuries in Tests, as both players are currently at an equal level with 68 half-centuries each.