How Joe Root overtakes Kohli?: Virat's form slips and English player gains; England's flat pitch worked

England's Joe Root, who made history with 34 Test centuries, is the batsman with the most centuries for England. He now has his sights set on breaking Sachin Tendulkar's record of 51 centuries and 15,921 runs in Tests. The 33-year-old Root has far surpassed Virat Kohli (29 centuries) in terms of Test runs and centuries. As of December 2019, Kohli was the player with the most Test centuries among active players, while Root was not even in the top-5. Root then went on to score 17 centuries in the last 4 years to top the list of active players. Kohli could score only 2 centuries during this time. From 4 points in this story, we will know what made Root different in the last 4 years, which made him the best in Tests. He has surpassed not only Kohli but also modern day greats like Australia's Steve Smith and New Zealand's Kane Williamson. Kohli and Root's Stats for Most Test Centuries and Most Runs in All Formats… Now 4 Reasons… 1. Root Focuses on One Format If Root made his Test debut on 13 December 2012 against India. Within a month he made his ODI and T20 debuts as well. Till 2018, Root continued to play all three formats, but from May 2019, the management dropped him from T-20. Root didn't get many chances in ODIs either, but he never missed a Test. Since 2019, England have played 69 Tests, Root was part of 68 of them, he missed one match due to injury. While Root could only play 50 ODIs and 4 T20s in these 6 years. England played 163 limited overs matches during this period. On the other hand, Virat has been focusing on all three formats since his debut. Since 2019, India have played 47 Tests, with Virat making the most appearances in 37 of them. India played 105 ODIs and here too Virat made the most of the team with 79. He has played 60 out of 125 T20s for India. Even Suryakumar Yadav, who only played T-20 cricket, could only play 71 matches during this period. The difference is obvious, due to playing in the same format, Root has been able to focus all his attention on scoring runs and centuries in Tests. On the other hand, Virat was contributing for the team in all three formats. Now that Kohli has retired from T20s, the number of ODI matches has also reduced, so he has a golden opportunity to rise to the top in Tests. 2. England plays more Tests in a year than India Among the 12 Test playing countries, England plays the most matches. The team played 10 Tests this year and they have 7 more Tests to play, that is 17 Tests in 2024. Since 2019, England have played 69 Tests and Australia 49, while India have played only 47 Tests. The 33-year-old Root played 145 matches in his 11-year career due to playing more Tests. Due to which he got more chance to score runs in Tests. While 35-year-old Virat could only play 113 Tests in his 13-year career. England plays 12 to 18 Tests every year while India plays only 8 to 12 Tests. The numbers have certainly increased in the last few years, but England's parity is still far from over. 3. Baseball supports pitch route In May 2022, New Zealand's Brendon McCullum became England Test team coach. Ben Stokes became the captain of England after Root gave up the captaincy. England then adopted an aggressive batting approach, but for this the team also changed its home pitch. England also named it baseball. Until 2022 England had grass on the pitch, fast bowlers were used and runs were difficult to score due to swing. After the advent of baseball, every pitch in England became flat, making runs easy and wickets very difficult. Root took advantage of this and scored 7 centuries in 18 Tests at home, while he managed only 2 centuries in 10 Tests abroad. After baseball, Root is scoring 2 centuries in every 5 Tests in England. Before this he scored 2 centuries in 8 Tests. On the other hand, India started changing its pitch from the England series in February 2021. In the first match, the batting was easy for the first 2-3 days, the spin helped in the last 2 days. But since the last 4 years, the ball starts spinning from the very first day of the match, due to which it has become very difficult to score runs. Due to this, not only Virat but also batsmen from all over the world are desperate to score runs in India. In the last 3 years, Virat could score only one century at home. During this period, the remaining 87 players combined to score only 19 centuries in 14 Tests. Even in this, foreign players could score only 6 centuries. While from 2011 to 2021, 92 centuries were scored in 48 Tests in India. That is, where earlier about 4 centuries were scored in every 2 Tests, now only 3 centuries are scored in every 2 Tests. However, one thing is certain, Virat has managed to score only one century abroad in the last 3 years. Root has 21 centuries in England, 9 centuries in India, Sri Lanka, South Africa and New Zealand, but failed to score a single century in Australia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and UAE. On the other hand, Virat has scored a century in every country where he has played cricket except Bangladesh. He has 6 centuries to his name in Australia while he has 5 centuries in England, South Africa and New Zealand. That is, it is difficult for Root to reach 40 Test centuries if the home pitch is not available. 4. Virat has been out of form for a long time Virat Kohli scored his 27th Test century against Bangladesh on 23 November 2019. He scored a lot of runs in 2019, but was out of form in 2020. Centuries stopped coming in all three formats, Virat was certainly scoring runs in ODIs and T20s, but his runs stopped in Tests as well. For 3 years and 3 months, Virat could score only 993 runs at an average of 26.13 in 22 Tests. In this he scored 6 fifties, meaning Virat's form was clearly missing. Not only is it difficult to score runs in India, Virat was also facing difficulties abroad. He then scored his 28th Test century against Australia in March 2023, from here he moved to the West Indies where he also scored a century. Virat started scoring runs and centuries in all three formats from September 2022. India will play 5 Tests at home and 5 in Australia for the next 6 months. Kohli has 20 centuries to his name at both the venues, so he will rarely get such a golden opportunity to find his best form. Root made a habit of scoring runs and hundreds in Tests when Virat was out of form. Since December 2019, he has scored over 5000 runs in 57 Tests. Which includes 17 centuries and 19 fifties. He also averaged close to 55, the highest among active players playing more than 20 Tests. Root tops Fab-4 Test stats On 31 August 2014, New Zealand legend Martin Crowe identified the top-4 players and named them the Fab-4. Along with Joe Root and Virat Kohli, New Zealand's Kane Williamson and Australia's Steve Smith were also included. Crowe then said that these four would become cricket's greatest batsmen in the next decade and lead their respective teams. And so it happened. There is no one better than Virat in ODI and T20 stats of the Fab-4. However, sometimes Smith, sometimes Virat, sometimes Williamson and now Root are ahead in Tests. As of December 2019, Virat has scored the most Test centuries with 27. At that time Smith had 26 centuries, Williamson 21 and Root just 17 centuries. Smith scored only 6 and Virat only 2 Test centuries in the last 4 years, but Williamson scored 11 and Root scored 17 during this period. Due to which Root not only left behind Virat but also Smith and Williamson in Tests. However, no one has proven better than Virat in Test captaincy. *Graphics- Ankit Pathak.

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