Joe Root puts England on top against Sri Lanka with record-equalling century

After 12 balls of increasing tension for the expectant crowd, bums fidgeting in seats and all trips to the bar put on hold, Joe Root opened the face of his bat, glided the ball through vacant fourth slip, and punched the air before it had even crossed the rope. Test century number 33 was in the bag and with it, a couple of slices of history too.

Root has already returned to No 1 in the Test batting rankings this summer but the patch of form the Yorkshireman finds himself in took on an even deeper shade of purple here. He equalled Alastair Cook’s record for Test centuries by an Englishman and drew level with Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan with this his sixth at Lord’s. Another English great was on his mind in the moment, however, Root looking up to the sky and remembering his late batting coach, Graham Thorpe.

Harry Brook had the temerity to call Root “grandad” recently but at 33 years old, and claiming to feel more like “Peter Pan” in this refreshed England team, there is the promise of more to come; more mountains to climb, like scratching the itch of a first century in Australia in 18 months’ time or perhaps even an assault on Sachin Tendulkar’s record 15,921 Test runs. Root is 3,647 away at the time of writing.

That is all to come and on the opening day of this second Test, as Sri Lanka sprung a surprise by opting to bowl first under blue skies and high clouds, England were simply grateful for another Root masterclass that was as vital as it was easy on the eye.

Before Peter Pan came a bit of a lost boys performance from the top order, three gift wickets in the morning that, with a lengthened lower order, made it imperative for a middle-order player to deliver an innings of substance.

At stumps, after two arm-wrestle sessions were followed by a surge of late runs in the third, England had reached a healthy 358 for seven. Root had fallen 45 minutes before the close and to a shot that, even with 143 runs from 206 balls to his name, will invite criticism from some quarters. At least he waited that long to bring out the reverse ramp and, as was the case in Mount Maunganui against New Zealand in early 2023, and Rajkot against India back in February, will no doubt claim execution, not intent, was the problem here.

It had also been party time at the other end, Gus Atkinson walking out at a troublesome 216 for six and delivering an unbeaten 74 from 81 balls as some 158 runs flowed after tea overall. The good people at Wisden probably have one of their five cricketers of the year in the can already, with Atkinson, 26 wickets so far in his maiden Test summer, showing a second string to his bow by cracking five fours and four meaty sixes. Matt Potts, who has also worked assiduously on his batting this summer, will resume alongside him in the morning on 20 not out.

As well as some tigerish fielding from Sri Lanka, it was Lahiru Kumara who had kept Root honest throughout and not least during that tense 10-minute wait to turn 99 into triple figures.

Recalled by the tourists after the five-wicket defeat in Manchester, the right-armer added a bit of heft to Dhananjaya de Silva’s attack and could have finished with more than the two wickets he claimed. After bouncing out Chris Woakes – Asitha Fernando juggling at long leg – Kumara twice saw Root squirt inside edges past the stumps before, at 4.40pm, the century was secured.

Kumara had also delivered the first breakthrough after his captain’s surprise decision at the toss, Dan Lawrence seeing a scratchy third outing as makeshift opener ended on nine when he walked down the pitch and edged a drive behind.

Ollie Pope was nearly undone immediately by Kumara’s extra bounce before a pretty galling top-edged pull off Asitha proved his downfall for one; the kind of rash, forced shot that not even the inherent wastage of England’s aggressive outlook can justify.

Root instantly showed Pope how it was done, a near identical follow-up from Asitha instead clipped around the corner with Swiss-clock precision timing to get off the mark with a boundary first ball.

There was one heart-in-mouth moment on 11: an lbw shout from Kumara that was turned down on the field and shown only to be clipping the leg stump bail on review. But thereafter it was a largely frictionless affair that once again underlined his remarkable and wide-ranging array of low-risk scoring options.

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Ben Duckett will argue that his demise for a typically sprightly 40 from opener came from a low-risk shot, such is his proficiency playing the reserve sweep. Still, it felt a bit of a bonus for Prabath Jayasuriya on a day when the left-arm spinner was chiefly deployed to keep things dry from over the wicket at the Nursery End. The seamers looked the likeliest, even if the dry surface meant it never felt like a bowl-first day.

All three still had natural variation from the slope, the hustling, bustling Asitha nipping one into Harry Brook’s pad on 33 after lunch and Milan Rathnayake getting one to straighten and see Jamie Smith feather behind for 21.

Root, who steered England to 97 for three at lunch and 200 for five by tea, was all too wise to it, however, threading 18 fours in between watchful defence. Lord’s, where he needs a further 97 runs to pass Gooch’s record Test tally of 2,015 on the ground, is very much his Neverland.