James Milton: Joe Root's Test landmark is a feat of talent, technique and toughness

At the end of August Joe Root broke Sir Alastair Cook's England Test record of 33 centuries in front of a packed Saturday house at Lord's.

On Wednesday a sparse crowd at the Multan Cricket Stadium in Pakistan witnessed him pass Cook's mark of 12,472 runs in suitably understated fashion.

As with Harry Kane, there is a distinct lack of drama about Root's world-class performances. Just as Kane was always going to become England's record goalscorer, Root seemed destined to scale the statistical peaks of Test cricket ever since his debut innings of 73 against India in December 2012.

The apparent inevitability of his achievement should not diminish it and this week's record-breaking innings in the first Test against Pakistan showcased his remarkable qualities of stamina, focus and determination.

Having been in the field for 149 overs, with temperatures edging towards 40C, Root came in to face the ninth ball of England's innings.

The tourists were wobbling at 4-1, replying to Pakistan's first-innings total of 556, but by the time he was dismissed for 262, England's chastened opponents were trading at 320 on Betfair to win the match.  

Root must be an infuriating opponent. Neither a plodder nor a slogger, he often appears virtually impossible to dislodge while always scoring freely and moving the game on.

He went past Cook's record tally with a crisp on-drive for four. It was an elegant, deceptively simple shot, the work of a man described by England's batting coach Marcus Trescothick as "a technician of the game".

The on-drive, commentators like to remind us, is the shot of a player in top form but, since his classy debut as a 21-year-old in Nagpur, has Root ever really looked out of nick?

He has missed only two of England's 149 Tests since arriving on the scene – an extraordinary feat of consistency, fitness and mental fortitude – and even his toughest times featured innings that most batters would rate as career highlights.

Root's brief spell as opener included a knock of 180 in an Ashes Test at Lord's. His tenure as captain may have ended with a harrowing run of one win in 17 Tests but it started with a brilliant 190 off 234 balls against South Africa – again at Lord's, where the next-highest score in the match was 87.

Early in 2021, the final full year of Root's captaincy, he played three matchwinning innings in a row: 228 and 186 in two Tests against Sri Lanka in Galle and an epic 218 against mighty India in Chennai.

That hot streak underlined the gulf between the skipper and his supporting cast as England's next-highest individual score in those three victories was Dom Sibley's laborious 87 off 286 balls in Chennai.

In 2022, back in the ranks under new captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, Root experienced a brief identity crisis during the frenetic early days of 'Bazball'.

There was the occasional ungainly slog or rash ramp shot but he soon settled back into a rhythm of unflappable runscoring.  

Earlier in his career, he was criticised for failing to convert half-centuries into match-defining scores, suffering costly lapses in concentration once he had reached 60 or 70.

Most club cricketers would love to have that kind of weakness but Root has addressed it in ruthless fashion in recent years. Since the start of 2021, he has converted 18 of his 33 half-centuries into tons, including this week's career-best effort in Multan in which he shared a partnership of 454 – yet another England record – with Harry Brook.

The Yorkshireman is closing in on the Test tallies of legends Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting and this week Hills offered 2-1 about him overhauling India icon Sachin Tendulkar's record mark of 15,921.

In a Racing Post preview of one of Root's early Test matches, I referred to him, irreverently, as "the Sheffield Tendulkar". In a few years' time, perhaps Tendulkar will be known as "the Mumbai Root".

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