23 Centuries for Joe Root in Test cricket. Only Alastair Cook, with 33 tonnes, has more for England in the format. Root shares second place with Kevin Pietersen, who also scored 23 cents.
6 Root’s number of centuries in 2021. He is only England’s third hitter with six tonnes of testing in a calendar year after Denis Compton in 1947 and Michael Vaughan in 2002.
6 Root’s six centuries in 2021 put him just behind Ricky Ponting on the list of most centuries of testing by a captain in a calendar year, with the former Australian captain crashing seven tonnes in 2006. No captain of England had achieved more than four centuries of testing in a single year before Root in 2021.
8 Root now shares the record for most centuries of testing achieved against India with Gary Sobers, Viv Richards, Ponting and Steven Smith. His eight hundred are also the most numerous of any in the tests between England and India.
1398 Root’s Test in 2021, the highest for a captain in England in a calendar year, who passed Cook’s 1364 tests in 14 tests in 2015. Only three captains have scored more tests in a year than Root of 1398. Former South African captain Graeme Smith topped the list with 1656 races scored in 2008.
875 Root races against India in trials in 2021. These are the third races of any player in a calendar year against an opponent, just behind Don Bradman’s 974 against England in 1930 and Clive Lloyd’s 903, also against the India, 1983.
Sampath Bandarupalli is a statistician at ESPNcricinfo