Joe Root's Test Cricket Domination: A Report

Despite facing a setback at the Oval, England had a triumphant home season, winning against both West Indies and Sri Lanka. The victorious run of the team mirrored the rise of their premier batter, Joe Root. During the summer, Root scaled new heights, surpassing Alastair Cook to become the English cricketer with most Test centuries and also being within touching distance from Cook's total run tally. Root also became the leading run getter and century maker at the 'home of cricket', Lord's, during the second Test against Sri Lanka.

In the past 3.5 years, Root's spectacular ascend has been truly impressive. Currently considered the best batter in the world in Test cricket, Root was once regarded as part of the modern day 'Fab Four', alongside Steven Smith, Virat Kohli, and Kane Williamson, who ruled the batting sphere in the 2010s. Though Root was the best among the rest, his peers seemed to peak higher at one point. However, since 2021, Root has hit a new zenith as a batter. Root's run tally of 4579 is over 2000 runs more than the next leading batter during this period. Furthermore, his remarkable 17 centuries are ten more than any player, except Kane Williamson who has scored nine.

Root's incredible rise is not only due to the volume of runs scored but how he scored them. Right from 2021, Root has significantly improved his conversion of starts to higher scores. Up until 2020, Root crossed fifty 66 times in 97 tests, but only a fourth of these were converted into centuries. However, since then, he has doubled his century tally to 34, converting every alternate 50+ score into a century. In fact, Root's 17 centuries since 2021 equal the sum total of the centuries hit by his 'Fab Four' peers, Williamson, Smith and Kohli, during the same period.

Root's extraordinary rise can be attributed to two main factors: his significantly improved home record and his enhanced second innings statistics. From 2013 to 2020, 18 batters amassed 2000+ runs at home, and Root's home average of 50.56 ranked ninth, whereas the leaders of this group were Kohli, Smith, Warner, and Williamson. But, the statistic changed dramatically from 2018 to 2021, a period during which batting in England was particularly hard, demonstrating Root's substantial improvement as a batter.