Joe Root kicked off 2021 in the grandest of manner with a huge ton to put Sri Lanka and world cricket on notice. After going an entire calendar year without reaching three figures in international cricket he did so at the first available opportunity this year with his 18 th Test hundred and his seventh as captain.
By the time the rain forced the players terminally from the field in the final session Root had collected 168 not out, the highest score by an Englishman in Sri Lanka beating Kevin Pietersen's mark of 151 in 2012.
Pietersen's knock might have been a better innings in terms of pitch difficulty and quality of bowlers, and Graham Thorpe's 113 in 2001 might be better still, but no other Englishman had scored more than a solitary
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