Joe Root shatters Kumar Sangakkara's record with century against India

LONDON: England ace batter Joe Root etched his name into the record books on Sunday during the final Test against India at The Oval, surpassing Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara.

The right-handed batter who scored his 38th Test century arrived at the crease when England were 82-2 on day five morning.

The Three Lions lost their well-set opener Ben Duckett, who made 54 off 83 balls with the help of six fours.

With England needing a daunting 292 to win in a record chase, Joe Root began cautiously and kept scoring runs to help his team get out of trouble.

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In doing so, he scored his 39th Test century, surpassing Kumar Sangakkara’s tally of 38 tons in the longest form of the game.

Most Test Centuries

1. Sachin Tendulkar – 51 in 200 matches

2. Jacques Kallis – 45 in 166 matches

3. Ricky Ponting – 41 in 167 matches

4. Joe Root – 39* in 159 matches

5. Kumar Sangakkar 38 in 134 matches

Additionally, he became the first-ever player to score over 6,000 runs in the World Test Championship (WTC).

Currently, the ace batter is leading the runs chart in WTC at an outstanding average of 52, followed by Australia’s Steve Smith with 4,278 runs in 55 games in the Championship cycle.

The third on the list is also Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne, who has accumulated 4,225 runs in 53 Tests.

Most runs in World Test Championship:

1. Joe Root 6076* runs in 69* matches

2.  Steve Smith 4278 runs in 55 matches

3. Marnus Labuschagne 4225 runs in 53 matches

4. Ben Stokes 3616 runs in 57 matches

5. Travis Head  3300 runs in 52 matches

At the time of filing this story, England were cruising at 325, with 49 more runs needed to win the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy.

Joe Root was on 101* from 135 balls, whereas Jacob Bethell remained unbeaten on one from 22 balls.

READ: WATCH: Mohammed Siraj’s dropped catch helps Harry Brook reach century