England vs Pakistan: Joe Root Overtakes Sunil Gavaskar, Creates History With 35th Test Century

Joe Root continued his purple patch in Test cricket and slammed the 35th century in red-ball cricket. The former England captain has been enjoying a purple patch in Tests since 2021 and he once again showed his batting prowess. The right-handed batsman dominated the Pakistani bowlers at their home and helped England bounce back after the loss of an early wicket.

Root overtook Sunil Gavaskar in an elite list with his 35th Test century. The England veteran now has more Test centuries than the ICC Hall of Famer. Gavaskar finished his career with 34 Test centuries. He held the record for most Test centuries for many years after his retirement.

His record was broken by Sachin Tendulkar, who piled up 51 Test centuries. Following Sachin, Jacques Kallis (45), Ricky Ponting (41), Kumar Sangakkara (38) and Rahul Dravid (36) also broke Gavaskar's record. Root has now become the latest batsman to score more centuries than him.

He is two centuries away from overtaking Dravid and given his form, Root can go past the Indian legend in the ongoing series against Pakistan.

Root also created history with his 35th Test century and he is now the second active player with more than 50 centuries in international cricket. Virat Kohli was the sole active player in this list previously.

The former India captain has scored 80 centuries so far. He is 21 centuries away from overtaking Sachin, who is the only batsman to score 100 centuries.

Pakistan did well with the bat and piled up a total of 556. With England's batsmen under the pressure, the home bowlers had an opportunity to do wonders with the ball. But the bowlers struggled and England have breached the 400-run mark at the loss of just 3 wickets. Root is still batting solidly and is heading towards a double-century.

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