Joe Root added another landmark to his remarkable Test career as England completed a ruthless 3-0 series sweep of Pakistan with an eight-wicket victory at Edgbaston on Sunday.
Root remained unbeaten on 62 to guide England home and broke Sachin Tendulkar’s long-standing record for the most Test half-centuries.
The 35-year-old now has 69 Test fifties, surpassing Tendulkar’s tally of 68. He reached the landmark in just 309 innings, 20 fewer than the Indian great.
Root’s latest unbeaten fifty also made him the first batter in Test history to score more than 2,000 runs in fourth innings.
Already England’s leading Test run-scorer, the right-hander has amassed 14,278 runs in 169 Tests and remains second on the all-time list behind Tendulkar’s 15,921.
But Root’s return to the England captaincy carries a much bigger prize on the horizon: the Ashes.
He resumed the Test captaincy after Ben Stokes retired from international cricket. Root previously led England in a record 64 Tests between 2017 and 2022, winning 27.
His Ashes record as captain remain a painful chapter. England lost 4-0 in Australia in 2017-18 and suffered another 4-0 defeat in 2021-22, while the 2019 home series ended 2-2, allowing Australia to retain the urn.
England’s only Ashes series victory during Root’s playing career came in 2015, when they won 3-2 at home. As captain, he is yet to lift the urn.
With England set to host Australia from June 2027, Root has another chance to rewrite that part of his story.
The Pakistan triumph capped an extraordinary summer marked by a captaincy change, the arrival of new head coach Stephen Fleming and off-field controversy.
“Whether you call it chaos, whether you call it unusual, whether you call it unsettling, all are fair. But ultimately, the thing that I care about, and that’s most important, is what happens from that.”
“I think the way that we’ve responded to that has been excellent,” Root told at post-match conference.
With records continuing to fall and the Ashes returning to English soil in 2027, his second stint as captain could yet become one of the defining periods of his Test career.
