SK Player of the Day: Joe Root for his spectacular century against India

The first Test of the 5 match Test series between India and England began earlier today at Rajkot. As England won the toss and opted to bat first, they would have been in deep trouble in the very first over itself when captain Alastair Cook nicked Mohammed Shami’s ball to Ajinkya Rahane who dropped the chance.

It did not stop there as Cook was dropped in the 4^th and 6^th over as well. So, what could have been a good start for India turned out to be a decent start for England as the duo of Cook and debutant Haseeb Hameed put on 47 runs for the first wicket after Cook was dismissed leg before wicket to Ravindra Jadeja.

Soon after that, India were right back in the game as Ravichandran Ashwin picked up the wickets of Hameed and Ben Duckett and England were reduced to 102-3 at lunch.

Fans expected Ashwin and Jadeja to run riot post lunch and dismiss all the English batsmen before the end of the day, But the duo of Joe Root and Moeen Ali had other ideas in mind.

Root showed his class and proved to everyone as to why he is the 3^rd best batsmen in the world by brilliantly counter-attacking the Indian spin trio of Ashwin, Jadeja, and Amit Mishra.

He had an answer to everything which was thrown at him and scored at a strike rate of 70 or more against each of the three spinners. He reached his half-century just after lunch and went on to notch his 11^th Test century and 3^rd against India a few overs after tea.

His stroke play was impeccable and it was a delight for fans to watch him in action against the Indian bowling attack. With his knock today, he also notched up 1000 runs for the calendar year for the second consecutive year and became the 5^th English cricketer to ever do so.

He was dismissed by Umesh Yadav in the 81^st over in slightly controversial circumstances after scoring 124 runs in 180 deliveries with 4 fours and one huge six.

He was well complemented by all-rounder Moeen Ali who ended the day not out at 99. The duo of Ali and Root put up a partnership of 179 runs for the 5^th wicket.

Ever since his debut, Joe Root has been the standout player for the England cricket team. He has played 44 Tests for England and has amassed 4103 runs with 11 centuries and 23 half-centuries at an average of 53.28.