Trailing 0-1 in the series after being bowled out in two sessions at Lord’s, Joe Root-led England made a solid comeback in Leeds and handed Team India an innings defeat to level the series 1-1. It took England less than one session to dismiss 8 batsmen in the opening session of day 4.
Courtesy of a win in the Leeds Test match, Root created history as he has now become England’s most successful Test captain. Root, who was appointed England’s full-time Test captain in 2017, now has 27 wins from 55 matches. He leapfrogged Michael Vaughan on the list, who led England to 26 wins in 51 matches. Following Vaughan are Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss, who led the Three Lions to 24 wins.
While Root has become England’s most successful Test captain, an Ashes series win continues to elude him as Test captain. Root, who is only 30 now, can very well become the first-ever England captain to lead his country in 100 Test matches.
Talking of the ongoing India-England series, England won the 3rd Test by an innings and 76 runs to level the series 1-1. Asked to bowl first, the home team gained the upper hand by bowling India out for 78 on day 1. Root continued his purple patch and scored 121 to propel England to the score of 432.
With a solid lead of 364 runs in the bag, England were favourites but a solid batting performance from Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara on day 4 raised hopes of a comeback from Team India. The visitors ended day 2 with a score of 215/2 on the board.
