Joe Root after completing his century in the Pakistan vs England 1st Test.© AFP
The morning of Thursday, October 9, has turned out to be a record-breaking one for England batter Joe Root. As the 33-year-old became the first batter to score 5,000 runs in the history of the World Test Championship (WTC), he also went past a series of cricket legends in another list. Root brought up his 35th Test century, a figure that took him past India legend Sunil Gavaskar, Pakistan stalwart Younis Khan, Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene and West Indian icon Brian Lara.
Root's 35th Test hundred now puts him outright in sixth position when it comes to the most centuries in Test cricket. He trails Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara and Rahul Dravid in the list. Root reaches the milestone in his 147th Test match, in which he has slammed in excess of 12,000 Test runs.
With Pakistan having posted a massive 556 in the first innings, Root scored his hundred alongside significant contributions from the rest of the English batting to chase after Pakistan's total. Root reached his century in 167 balls, continuing his rich run of form in 2024.
Root also crossed 1,000 Test runs in the calendar year of 2024 during the knock, becoming the first batter to do so this year.
Pakistan vs England, 1st Test: As it happened
Root's 150 was well-supported by his teammates. Harry Brook scored a century in just 118 balls as English looked well set to take a first innings lead despite a total of 556 by Pakistan.
Zak Crawley made a quickfire 78 at the top of the order to set the base, while usual opener Ben Duckett came in at No. 4 to slam 84 off just 75 balls.
England's terrific pace of scoring meant that no Pakistan bowler had an economy rate of less than 5. Only Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Aamer Jamal managed a wicket each.