Joe Root etched his name in the history books after continuing his golden run of form in Test cricket by completing the 37th century of his career in the longest format of the game during the second day of play in the third Test between England and India on Friday (July 11) at the iconic Lord's Cricket Ground.

Root, who was unbeaten at 99 at stumps after day 1 and became the 18th player to stay unbeaten at the end of a day's play, one run short of a century. The 34-year-old ensured he did not become the first player in that list to miss out on a ton as he reached the milestone with a boundary of Jasprit Bumrah on the first ball of the day while breaking a series of records.

The century was Root's 11th against India and eight at home. Root has gone past Ricky Ponting and Steve Smith and has become the first player to score eight centuries at home against India. The 34-year-old has previously made two centuries against India during the 2014 series as well as one in 2018. During India's tour of England in 2021-22, the England cricket team made four centuries.

Player	Country	Centuries
Joe Root	England	8
Ricky Ponting	Australia	7
Steve Smith	Australia	7
Zaheer Abbas	Pakistan	6
David Boon	Australia	6
Javed Miandad	Pakistan	5
Shivnarine Chanderpaul	West Indies	5

Overall, Root has equalled Don Bradman as only the second player in Test history to score eight centuries against one team. The Australian cricket great had eight tons in Australia against England. Ponting and Smith's tally of seven tons against Australia at home is joint-second on the list.

Overall, this is Root's 11th Test ton against India, which is the joint-most by a player against the Asian Giants. Moreover, Root completed his 22nd Test ton in England, which is now the joint-second most by a player in one country alongside Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) and Sachin Tendulkar (India) while he is just one short of the record with is shared by Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), and Ricky Ponting (Australia) with 23 each in their home country.

With his eight tons at Lord's, Root extended his record for the most tons at the iconic venue in history, increasing his lead over Graham Gooch (6).

Root has now gone past Rahul Dravid and Steve Smith (36 each) with his 37th Test ton and is the fifth-highest run-getter in Test cricket history. Only Sangakkara (38), Ponting (41), Kallis (45), and Tendulkar have more.