England vs India 2022

Joe Root surpasses Ricky Ponting and Viv Richards to break another record against India

On December 13, 2012, a new player from England made his international debut against India. He went on to score a magnificent 73 in his first game itself. Little did the world know that these would be the first of many runs he was going to score against India. This was the first chapter of the ‘love affair’ between India and the England batter Joe Root. The former England captain has now surpassed legends like Ricky Ponting, Viv Richards, Steve Smith and Gary Sobers to become the batsman with the most hundreds against India in Test Cricket.

The 31-year-old star batter has now scored 2,526 runs against India averaging 63.5 against the team with 9 hundreds and 10 fifties. The only time he hasn’t scored a hundred against India in a Test series was in his debut series in which he played just one game. The batsman is in the form of his life since 2021 having scored 2635 runs in 47 innings with an average of 61.27.

Team India was once again at the receiving end of Root’s masterclass as he scored a scintillating 142 off just 173 balls helping England chase down a mammoth 378-run-target in the fifth Test at Edgbaston. The batter also received the ‘Player of the Series’ award for scoring 737 runs in the series at an average of 105.28 with 4 hundreds and 1 fifty to his name. With this prolific-run Root has now broken the record for most runs ever in an India vs England Test series which was previously held by former Indian captain Virat Kohli who scored 655 runs in the 2016 Test series between the two nations.

Root was going through his worst form since Ashes 2017 as he failed to convert starts and ended up getting out in the 50s. However, since 2021, the batter has gotten rid of the same and is regularly converting his starts into hundreds. His magnificent form has seen him rise to the top of the batsmen rankings in Test Cricket.