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England are in the driving seat against Pakistan on Day 3 of the first Test of the two-match bilateral series being played between the two teams at the Multan Cricket Stadium. At the time of writing, the visitors are 450-3 in response to the hosts' 556, trailing by 106 runs.
Joe Root made the biggest headlines for England on this day, as he broke several records on the way to his 35th Test century. At the time of writing, he is unbeaten on 157 off 241 balls, building a 200-run partnership with fellow Yorkshireman Harry Brook, who is batting on 120.
The former England captain is in a rich vein of form of late, and has scored three tons in the last five innings he has played. His stellar knock in Multan has consisted of some of the most delightful drives, cuts and punches. Root has been completely on top of his game and punished the Pakistani bowlers.
In this listicle, we take a look at three milestones that Root achieved on Day 3:
#1 Breaking Sunil Gavaskar's record for most centuries in Tests
Root went past the legendary Sunil Gavaskar's record of 34 Test centuries in this momentous knock of his in Multan. The 157 he is batting on currently is his 35th ton in this format of the game, which is also the most by any English cricketer. He is now the sixth in the list of players with the most Test centuries ever.
Root was phenomenal in his driving in this innings, and punished the errors of the Pakistani bowlers. The latter did not help themselves by bowling into his strengths for the most part, and suffered as a result of that. The surface in Multan has not accorded much movement to the bowlers either.
#2 Breaking Alastair Cook's record for most runs for England
Another massive milestone that Root achieved in this innings of his was getting past Sir Alastair Cook's record for scoring the most number of runs in Tests for England. He achieved this feat when he drove Aamer Jamal down the ground for a boundary to reach 71 and go past Cook's aggregate of 12,472 runs.
While Cook took 161 Tests to score these runs, Root achieved it in 147 matches. This speaks highly about the latter, who continues to rule the roost across the world and showcase his skills. He has become better with age and is batting on 157 in Multan at the time of this article being written.
#3 Becoming the first to score 5,000 runs in the WTC
Another big record that Root broke in this innings was becoming the first batter to get to 5,000 runs in the World Test Championship. The 33-year-old has vaulted into pole position in these standings and is miles ahead of his nearest competitor Marnus Labuschagne of Australia, who has 3,904 runs to his name.
Root's consistency has been one of the biggest talking points of his career, and that is also the reason why he is rated so highly across the world. He looks primed to get to Sachin Tendulkar's record of scoring the most number of runs in Test cricket if he continues in the same vein of form.
