NZvsENG: Joe Root equals Don Bradman's record after being "a bit caught up" in 'Bazball'

Joe Root, one of the great batsmen of modern cricket, scored a brilliant century in the second and last Test match of the ongoing NZvsENG series in Wellington. During this, Root equaled the 29 Test centuries of the great player Sir Don Bradman.

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Root is unbeaten on 101 off 182 balls in the NZvsENG Test series. This is the 29th century of Root's Test career. In terms of scoring the most international centuries in the list of active players, Root is second only to India's veteran batsman Virat Kohli. With this, Root has reached the number of his international centuries at 45. Virat has 74 international centuries to his name. In this list, Australian opener David Warner (45), Rohit Sharma (43), and Steve Smith (42) come after Root.

The right-handed veteran batsman had earlier scored his last Test century against Team India in Birmingham in July 2022. After this, he could score only 2 half-centuries. He spoke openly about getting "a bit caught up" in 'Bazball' and "trying to find out what my role is" under England's new regime. Root said that he felt his half-century in the first Test in Mount Maunganui had given him a "kick up the backside" and Root was undoubtedly back to his best in the NZvsENG Test series as he struck an unbeaten 101.

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Along with Root, young opener Harry Brook also played a century in the first innings of the NZvsENG series. Brook is close to a career double century. Talking about the NZvsENG match, New Zealand won the toss and invited England to bat first. Guest England scored 315 runs for 3 wickets in the first innings till the end of the first day's play. Harry Brook is unbeaten on 184 off 169 balls. Earlier, the English team had lost the wickets of opener Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, and Ollie Pope early. After that, Root and Brook have added 294 runs for the fourth wicket.