Joe Root now leads the ‘Fab Four’ of cricket in terms of Test centuries. The former England skipper on Tuesday smashed his 28th ton in whites to overtake Virat Kohli and Steve Smith’s tally, who have 27 each.  

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Root dabbed Mohammed Siraj’s back of length ball over Shubman Gill at gully for a boundary to bring up his hundred in 136 balls. The former skipper’s ton and partnership with Jonny Bairstow, who also made 100, put England in command of the rescheduled fifth Test vs India at  Edgbaston, Birmingham. 

Joe Root came out to bat when England had lost two quick wickets and were 107/2. After losing his partner Alex Lees two runs later (109/3), the 31-year-old rebuilt the innings with an in-form Jonny Bairstow. 

This was Root’s fourth hundred of the five-match series and he was descrived as the ‘best test batsman in the world right now’ by Indian legend Virender Sehwag. 

Most Test hundreds in Fab 4:

Root – 28* (121 matches)

Smith – 27 (86 matches)

Kohli – 27 (102 matches)

Williamson – 24 (88 matches)

England had to chase a record 378-run target against a potent Indian attack in the final innings. From 107 for loss, it soon became 109 for three before the dangerous duo of Root and Bairstow frustrated the Indians with a commanding 200 plus partnership. 

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England were 259 for three at stumps on day four, needing a very gettable 119 runs for a series levelling victory.

Bairstow, who is in the form of his life, was dropped on 14 by Hanuma Vihari and he made India pay dearly for it.

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Under-fire England openers Lees and Crawley had also displayed a lot of positive intent to take England to 107 for one at tea. India managed to get the breakthrough towards the end of session with Bumrah cleaning up Zak Crawley (46 off 76), who misjudged a leave, when a delivery darted in from length.