England failed to qualify for World Test Championship (WTC) final for the second consecutive time. Joe Root lost his captaincy during his period and Ben Stokes took over as England revolutionised Test cricket with ‘Bazball’ approach under head coach Brendon McCullum. However, Root was in stupendous form with the bat during his period as he scored eight Test centuries.
The list of centurions
For India, Shubman Gill, skipper Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul scored two centuries each in WTC 2021-23 cycle. A total of nine Indian batters scored centuries in the current cycle.
Batters from six countries have three or more Test centuries during WTC 2021-23. After Root, his teammate Jonny Bairstow and Australian opener Usman Khawaja are tied at the second spot with six Test centuries. They are followed by Australia top-order batter Marnus Labuschagne who has four Test centuries. New Zealand's Daryl Mitchell and Pakistan skipper Babar Azam have four Test centuries each.
Nine batters had three Test centuries on the list: England's Harry Brook, New Zealand's Kane Williamson and Devon Conway, Sri Lanka's Angelo Matthews, Pakistan's Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique and Australia's Travis Head and Steve Smith.
Root way ahead of Indian batters
Root scored 1,915 runs from 40 innings at an average of 53.19 including eight centuries and six half-centuries. The next batter on the list is Cheteshwar Pujara on no.19. Pujara scored 887 runs from 30 innings at an average of 32.85 including one century and six half-centuries.
Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant would have scored at least more than 1,000 runs and entered the top 10 had he not got injured in a horrific accident before Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023.
In the WTC final against Pat Cummins-led Australia at the Oval starting June 7, Pujara and Kohli will have the chance to score 1,000 Test runs in WTC 2021-23. Pujara needs 113 more runs whereas Kohli needs 131 runs. Kohli has scored 869 runs from 28 innings at an average of 32.18 including one century and three half-centuries.
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