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Another landmark moment for England's modern-day cricket legend Joe Root. As soon as the England National cricket team confirmed their playing eleven for the first ODI match of the ongoing series against Sri Lanka, the star batter enrolled his name in a list of legends.
Today's match between England and Sri Lanka marks the 100th ODI match at home in Joe Root's international career with the England Men's National Cricket Team. He is the only second batter to achieve the record for the Three Lions in the second-longest format of the game.
Joe Root becomes the 2nd England batter to play 100th ODI match
Before Root, former captain Eoin Morgan was the only English batter who achieved the feat of playing his 100th One Day International match for the team at home. Today (September 21), the England cricket team enters the Riverside Ground after whitewashing Sri Lanka in the three-match Test series.
In back-to-back Test series, the Joe Root-led team claimed two clean series wins. After defeating Pakistan by 3-0 in the 3-match Test series, England went on to defeat Sri Lanka by the same margin.
The home team will try their best to continue their form in the lead-up to the 2027 ODI World Cup, which will be jointly arranged by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The ODI series against Sri Lanka will be good preparation for the Three Lions before the flagship event.
Joe Root explains how switching roles helps him in relaxation
On this special occasion of his career, the English stalwart batter mentioned that switching from the Test captaincy role to a only batter's role in the 50-over format helps him to reset his mind. Back-to-back matches with the leadership duty could have dented his individual performance across the formats. As he is playing only as a batter, under the leadership of the white-ball captain Harry Brook, Root is hopeful to do something significant for his team in today's match.
"I think sometimes just a change of code is exactly what you need just to freshen your mind, slightly different group and energy around things, and a different focus in terms of what you're trying to work towards," Joe Root said before the first over of the match.
"So it definitely can energise you in the right way, and as I said, I think we've played some really good stuff over the summer so far, so another chance to build on that and have hopefully three more good strong games in the bank ahead of what's to come," he added.
Joe Root's ODI career for England in a brief
Before taking the field for the ODI match against Sri Lanka, the right-handed batter has scored 7826 runs for England in ODIs in 192 matches and 181 innings for a batting average of 51.15.
During the course, the 36-year-old has registered twenty 100s and 48 half-centuries, only two 50s away from completing half-centuries of 50s in his ODI career. Root made his ODI debut for England against India on January 11, 2013 at Rajkot.
