England’s Joe Root was at his brilliant best again on Day 3 of the fourth Test against India at Old Trafford, Manchester. The right-handed batter scored a classy century that helped him break a world record going past the great Don Bradman. Root now has the most Test hundreds at home against a single opponent. With 9 centuries against India in England, he has moved ahead of Bradman, who had scored 8 hundreds against England in Australia.

That wasn’t all. Root also went past Ricky Ponting to become the second highest run-scorer in Test history. Earlier in the day, he had overtaken Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis in a matter of minutes. He broke Ponting’s record with a single past point, and the Old Trafford crowd stood up to applaud a historic moment. It was a special scene Root’s teammate Ben Stokes raised his bat in celebration even before Root took off his helmet to soak in the cheers.

Ponting, who was in the commentary box with Ravi Shastri, smiled and said, “Congrats, Joe Root. Magnificent,” as the England batter moved ahead of him in the all-time list. Root now has 13,379 runs in Tests, behind only Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar, who leads with 15,921 runs. This was Root’s 38th Test century, putting him level with Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara at No. 4 on the all-time list of most hundreds in Test cricket. Only Tendulkar (51), Kallis (45), and Ponting (41) are ahead of him now.

The 34-year-old started his Test journey with a solid 73 on debut in Nagpur during England’s 2012 tour of India. Since then, he has become one of the greatest to ever play the game and he’s still going strong. Earlier in the series, Root had equalled Steve Smith’s record of 11 Test centuries against India. Now, with his latest hundred, he has made that record his own with 12 centuries against the Indian team across 34 Tests. Joe Root is not just breaking records he’s building a legacy that will be remembered for generations.

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