England’s new era under head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes is off to a flying start with Englishmen defeating the reigning World Test champions New Zealand by five wickets in the opening Test at Lord's.
Joe Root, unburdened by captaincy, led the batting charge from the front and smacked a brilliant century against the Kiwis. The former England skipper claimed his 26th Test century, along the way completing 10,000 runs in Test cricket, and becoming only the second Englishman to achieve the feat after former captain Alastair Cook.
The former English great Alastair Cook heaped high praise on Root for his massive achievement and said that the 31-year-old is the most complete England batter he has ever seen.
"He is a pleasure to watch, the most complete England batsman I have seen. The person who could play the most incredible innings was Kevin Pietersen, but for the most complete batsmen in all three forms, it's Root. His consistency is incredible," Cook told BBC.
Cook, who is currently England's leading run-scorer in Tests with 12,472 runs in 161 matches, also backed Root to break his record and become England's all-time highest run-getter in the most extended format of the game in the future.
"Barring injury, he'll go miles past my record. He is so hard to tie down. I had to grind my way to 30, it always took me what felt like two hours. Because Joe has got so many low-risk scoring options, pretty much through 360 degrees, he will often get to 30 off 40 balls," he added.
Joe Root is now just one century away from equalling former India captain Virat Kohli and Steve Smith's record of most Test centuries among active players.
Both Kohli and Smith have scored 27 centuries thus far and are currently experiencing the century drought. While Kohli has not reached three-run figures since November 2019, Smith hasn't scored a ton in Test cricket since January 2021.