What if Ollie Pope had declared England innings before Joe Root completing his historic century? Root responds

Former England skipper Joe Root revealed how he would have felt if Ollie Pope had declared before he reached his century during the ongoing second Test match against Sri Lanka. Joe Root stated that he might not have enjoyed that decision by Ollie Pope, but he would have accepted it.

The 33-year-old smashed his second century of the match against Sri Lanka in the ongoing Test at Lord's in London.

The right-handed batter reached his 34th Test hundred on the third day of the match. Root surpassed legendary Alastair Cook to become England's leading century scorer in Tests.

The right-handed batter scored 103 runs off 121 balls with the help of 10 boundaries. Root is now just 96 runs short of surpassing Alastair Cook to become England's all-time leading run-scorer.

The middle-order batter is expected to break that record in the third and final match of the series.

I Might Not Have Enjoyed It - Joe Root

Joe Root was asked about how he would have felt if Ollie Pope had declared before he reached his century in England’s second innings.

Root said he would have appreciated that, as the main goal is to win. He stated that they had enough time to bundle out the opposition in the final innings.

"I'd have loved it. I might not have enjoyed it at the time but no. I'd say you play to win. The fact that we've still got such a long time left and they didn't have to. But yeah, it would have been wonderful," Root said.

"Did you think Ollie would declare before you got there?"

"I'd have loved it"

Class 😭😂 pic.twitter.com/rwRMe5Cq8t

— Bex #Denly(x2)MemeTeam 🎄 (@Psychadelick69) August 31, 2024

Root was in the 80s when England's lead reached 450 runs. While Ollie Pope might have been tempted to declare, he allowed Root to achieve his individual milestone.

The England team was bowled out for 251 runs in their second innings and set a massive target of 483 runs for Sri Lanka.

That's Kind Of What I Wanted To Do - Joe Root

Joe Root said that he enjoys the challenge of adapting to different situations and managing them effectively. Root added that he only became frustrated towards the end when the game slowed down and became too focused on him.

"Yeah, and I guess that's what you judge yourself on as a player, it's can you play the situation, the scenario and manage it well for a period of time. And that's kind of what I wanted to do today," Root stated.

"The only time that I started getting frustrated was towards the back end where you don't want the game to stand still. You don't want to drag out four or five overs where you're getting one and over and it becoming all about you. You want to get going with the game."

"So it was a bit twitchy towards the back end because that's not what we're about as a team. We want to keep as much as we can moving the game on and applying pressure when we're on top."

Also read: Joe Root issues a confession on breaking Sachin Tendulkar's record for most Test runs