Quickest to 9k runs, 5th ton of the year - Records galore for Joe Root

As expected, day three turned out to be a feast for the batsmen or better to say one batsman. Joe Root continued from where he had left off in the Nottingham Test. This time, he just amplified it more. Though there weren’t big contributions from other batsmen, they were in support of their skipper. Hence, England were able to take a lead of 27 runs at the end of the day's play.

For Indian bowlers, it was a long day on the field and Mohammed Siraj was the workhorse. He bagged four wickets, out of which two of them came on the second day. Ishant in his short spells was effective and ineffective. Nevertheless, he also chipped in with three wickets. A five-wicket haul in the last innings was followed by a wicket-less outing for Jasprit Bumrah. The third day completely belonged to one man and that was the England skipper Root. Records galore on the third day and here are a few of them:

A century partnership at last

England's last win in 2021 came in their first Test match in the India tour in Chennai. Not only their last win, the last of the 100-run partnership was also in that Test. Root and Ben Stokes were the pair who posted 124 runs for the fourth wicket. Post that, till the century partnership between Jonny Bairstow and Root for the fourth wicket in this match, there was a dry streak of 133 partnerships without one. This is the most partnerships witnessed by England between a century partnership.

The quickest in terms of time taken

Two English batsmen with 9000 runs and both of them have reached the mark within 10 years of their career. However, both of them were quicker in their own ways. Root reached the 9k mark in a span of 8 years and 244 days, the quickest of all, better than Sir Alastair Cook who reached it in nine years. In terms of the age of the player, Root was the second quickest to 9k runs at the age of 30 years and 227 days. Cook had reached the milestone at the age of 30 years and 159 days.

A captain’s year

Root has had a fantastic 2021. He extended his dream run by adding another century to his name at the home of cricket. He now has converted five out of six fifties into a century this year. The five centuries scored by him this year is the most by an England captain in a calendar year. He bettered Graham Gooch (1990) and Michael Atherton’s (1994) four centuries in the mentioned respective year.

Loves to score against India

On the second day of the second Test, Root registered 2000 runs against India and became the joint second-fastest (39 innings) to reach the landmark against India after Javed Miandad (35). On the third day, he extended that by registering his seventh ton against the team. He now is levelled with Cook for most centuries against India for England. From both the sides, he is the fourth batsmen to hit seven centuries in matches between the two teams. Overall, there are four players who have hit eight centuries against India. Ricky Ponting, Sir Viv Richards, Steve Smith and Sir Garry Sobers.

Most 150+ scores for a skipper

Everything he touches is turning into gold and by every run, he is entering the record books. He certainly missed a big one in the second innings of the first Test, but he made sure he gets it here as he registered his 11th score of 150+, the joint-most for an England bat. As a captain, this was his sixth, which is the most for an England skipper. In addition, this was his fourth century at the home of cricket and he has converted all of them to 150. His four 150+ scores are the most by a batsman at Lord’s.

Consecutive centuries for the first time

As a follow-up of his second innings century against India at Trent Bridge in the first Test, Root smashed a century and registered back-to-back centuries (consecutive innings) for the first time in his Test career. This was the third instance of Root registering centuries in consecutive innings against India in Tests. He also has consecutive centuries against India in ODIs (2018). He is only the second batsman to have hit centuries in consecutive innings against India in both Tests and ODIs. Zaheer Abbas has three consecutive centuries against India in both Tests and ODIs.

The no-ball issue haunting Bumrah again?

The suffering of Bumrah just doesn’t end with him being wicket-less. His age-old haunts are back to trouble him. Bumrah bowled 13 no-balls in the first innings. Since the start of this century (2000), only one bowler has bowled as many no-balls as Bumrah in an innings. It is none other than his IPL team staff member (Director of cricket operations, Mumbai Indians) Zaheer Khan in 2002 against West Indies in Georgetown. Overall, Indian bowlers had bowled 17 no-balls in this innings, which is their second-most in an innings in England. Their worst was in 2002 at Birmingham, where they had bowled 18.