Joe Root continued his splendid run with a second successive century as England produced another impressive allround display to canter to a comprehensive eight-wicket win over India in the series-deciding final ODI to wrap up the three-match series 2-1, in Leeds. With this century, Root has now 13 tons for his creating a new record. He has exceeded Marcus Trescothick who scored 12 centuries for England in his ODI career.
Other prominent English players in the list are Eoin Morgan (10), Kevin Pieterson (9), Gooch (8), Gower (7). So only English captain Eoin Morgan is currently in the race to overtake Joe Root.
For Root, it has been a turnaround of a sort after struggling in the T-20s and first ODI, where he didn't seem to have a measure of Kuldeep Yadav's bowling. However, Root, a classy batter by all accounts managed to dig deep and slammed two consecutive tons to ensure India face first bilateral series defeat under captain Virat Kohli.
England captain Eoin Morgan hailed England's series victory after a comprehensive win in the third ODI match on Tuesday. Morgan praised Joe Root, who after two back-to-back tons have now scored the most number of centuries for England in ODI cricket. Morgan said that Joe Root is an unbelievable cricketer. England captain said that Joe Root's current form is extremely encouraging, composure he has shown is Joe Root that 'we know and trust'. Morgan said even when Root wasn't scoring as much runs by his standard, he was the same bloke around the group, hungry for runs. When asked if Joe Root is the best ever ODI cricketer for England, Morgan refused to give a categorical answer. According to England captain, Root isn't half done and may score a lot more in the future. However, he described Root as an unbelievable cricketer.
Regarding the Kuldeep factor, Eoin Morgan said that it is difficult to compare between white ball and red ball cricket. England captain said that he is proud of how they have improved against Kuldeep, but also said that the Indian spinner will try to pose fresh challenge. Regarding that he cited example of Adil Rashid, who according to Morgan has brought a lot of new variations in his bowling to improve his craft. Rashid shocked Indian captain Kohli with an absolute cracker of a delivery, which took his off-stumps.
With PTI inputs
