After two centuries, Devdutt Padikkal strengthens his position in the Indian team, surpassing Sai Sudarshan

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.

In the Delhi Premier League (DPL) 2026, Sartak Ranjan, son of MP Pappu Yadav, continued to demonstrate outstanding results with his bat. In the match held on Wednesday, August 19, at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, he played brilliantly.

North Delhi Strikers captain, Sartak Ranjan, scored 45 runs off just 23 balls. This impressive innings included 1 boundary and 6 sixes. His average strike rate was 195.65. Additionally, another player from North Delhi, Yash Dabas, scored 78 runs off 38 balls. At the end of the match, Arjun Raparia added 27 runs off 11 balls. Thanks to the performances of these three batsmen, North Delhi managed to score 207/9 in 20 overs.

Nevertheless, the South Delhi Superstars won this match, scoring 208/6 in 19.3 overs. Ayush Badoni's innings served as a counterattack to the achievements of Sartak and Yash Dabas. Ayush scored 90 runs off 47 balls, utilizing 4 boundaries and 8 powerful sixes. Sanat Sangwan (21 runs off 9 balls) and Tejashwi Singh (28 runs off 19 balls) also performed excellently for South Delhi.

With this victory, the South Delhi team climbed to third position in the table, having secured 5 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw in 9 matches. Meanwhile, North Delhi Strikers ranks sixth out of eight teams, with 3 wins, 5 losses, and 1 draw.

Despite North Delhi being in the lower half of the table, Sartak's personal achievements in this league look magnificent. His performance in the DPL confirms that his level of play is different from his level in the IPL, where he played for Kolkata Knight Riders. At 29 years old, Sartak is the player who has scored the most runs in DPL 2026. He has accumulated 473 runs in 8 matches, playing 8 innings, with an average batting score of 59.13.

On the third day of the Gaule Test match, Ravindra Jadeja not only reached the milestone of 350 Test wickets but also secured his place in an exclusive club in Indian cricket history. Jadeja is now the second Indian to accumulate over 4000 Test runs and more than 350 wickets.

Before him in this list was only Kapil Dev. As soon as Jadeja reached 350 Test wickets, his name joined this special list, which includes only four world cricketers.

Kapil Dev accumulated 5248 runs and 434 wickets throughout his career. Other members of this club include Ian Botham from England, who has 5200 runs and 383 wickets, and Daniel Vettori from New Zealand, who scored 4531 runs and 362 wickets. The fourth member of this elite group is now Ravindra Jadeja with figures of 4108 runs and 351 wickets.

Furthermore, this achievement is significant because Jadeja became the fifth Indian to take 350 or more Test wickets. Before him were Anil Kumble (619), Ravichandran Ashwin (537), Kapil Dev (434), and Harbhajan Singh (417).

This means that Jadeja has made another major leap in the list of great Indian bowlers. Notably, unlike the other four, Jadeja has always been more associated with the role of an all-rounder rather than a pure bowler.

With 351 wickets, Jadeja ranks third among left-arm spinners in Test history. The leader in this list is Rana Garrett from Sri Lanka with 433 wickets. Daniel Vettori has 362 wickets, and Jadeja is just behind him with 351 wickets. Thus, he needs only 11 more wickets to overtake Vettori and take second place among left-arm spinners in Test history. Following them are Derek Underwood from England with 297 and Taijul Islam from Bangladesh with 271 wickets.

Another statistic that makes Jadeja's performance outstanding is his average strike rate. Among left-arm spinners who have taken at least 125 Test wickets, Jadeja demonstrates a strike rate of 58.0. The best strike rate among them belongs to Keshav Maharaj from South Africa, whose rate is 56.4. This indicates that Jadeja is not just a spinner creating pressure through consistent play, but also one of the best bowlers in his category in terms of wicket-taking ability.

The most important part of Jadeja's achievement is that 351 wickets is not his only accomplishment in his career. He has also scored over 4000 runs in Tests. This is the very 'double' result that puts him on par with Kapil Dev. This parallel is interesting because Kapil was a great all-rounder specializing in fast bowling, whereas Jadeja is a left-arm spin all-rounder. Despite differences in style, both their ability to consistently contribute in both attack and defense in Tests has brought them to the same historical level.

During the match, the Sri Lankan team was dismissed for 284 runs on the third day, allowing India to gain a first innings lead of 178 runs. Ravindra Jadeja took 3 wickets, giving 3 wickets for 57 runs, bowling 21 overs, including 5 maidens. Manav Chatur took 4 wickets, conceding 76 runs in 21.4 overs, including 1 maiden over.