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The first ODI between England and Sri Lanka has been ongoing at the Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street. During the match, Joe Root, who is playing his 100th ODI match at home, achieved yet another milestone in the game. He became the first English batter to complete 23,000 runs in International cricket. This is a historic milestone for the England Test captain.
Joe Root has been one of the finest cricketers for England. The Three Lions already won the T20I series against the Lankan Lions, beating them 3-0 in the three-match series. Now, under Harry Brook, they are looking to seal the ODI series as well. They have been in sensational form at home in white-ball cricket in recent times.
Joe Root becomes first batter to complete 23,000 runs for England
Joe Root needed six runs to complete the milestone of 23,000 runs in International cricket. He sits atop the list, as no English batter has crossed the 16,000-run mark in the game. Former England captain Sir Alastair Cook is second on the list with 15,737 runs, which is nearly over 7,000 international runs; this showcases the legacy of Root across formats.
Overall, he becomes the eighth cricketer to surpass the 23,000-run mark there after Sachin Tendulkar (34357), Virat Kohli (28359*), Kumar Sangakkara (28016), Ricky Ponting (27483), Mahela Jayawardene (25957), Jacques Kallis (25534) and Rahul Dravid (24208). He will hope to continue his good form across formats for the Three Lions.
Joe Root achieves another milestone
Root also achieved the milestone of playing his 100th ODI match at home as he became only the second England batter after former captain Eoin Morgan to achieve the milestone. Morgan has played 124 matches at home, and the former is expected to surpass England’s World Cup-winning captain if he continues with his red-hot form in the 50-over format.
The 35-year-old batter has been unbeaten on the score of 26 runs in the match so far and has been looking in fine form. In the last series against India, he was unbeaten in all three matches. He would like to score some big runs in this series as well to help the side win the matches.
"But an understanding of roles is very important in this format": Joe Root on England's 50-over vision
Ahead of the match, Joe Root was asked about the areas England is focusing on to improve. He replied, saying that it is about the roles of the game and having the rhythm of the game, which helps them improve in this format.
Root said (as quoted by Cricbuzz), "I think one thing that's definitely helped is the continuity in the squad that's been available, just purely because of the way that we don't have to rest players constantly all the time and move people across different formats."
"But an understanding of roles is very important in this format, and understanding of the rhythm of the game in this format is again very important, something that we spoke quite a lot about over the last little while, and just getting the guys used to the tempo of 50-over cricket."
