Root overtakes Cook with 34th ton, but there’s one asterisk that remains on his record

England batsman Joe Root has become his nation’s top century-maker ever after notching his 34th Test ton against Sri Lanka on Saturday.

Root’s 103 backed up his 143 in the first innings at Lord’s and with his second ton of the match which England won by 190 runs, and in doing so surpassed Alastair Cook’s mark of 33 Test centuries for his country.

The 33-year-old now only needs 96 runs to pass Cook (12,472 runs) as the nation’s top Test run-scorer of all-time despite playing 16 fewer matches.

Root has also pulled ahead of his contemporaries with Kane Williamson (32 centuries), Steve Smith (32 centuries) and Virat Kohli (29 centuries) all behind the Englishman in Test tons.

Veteran cricket journalist hailed Root following his knock as truly one of the great batsmen of the century.

“From the moment he came through as First-Class player, they’ve loved him,” Craddock said on SEN Afternoons.

“I remember Jason Gillespie who used to coach him said he was always full of questions and was just dying to improve himself.

“He wasn't one of those English County professionals who just sat back, absorbed and just cruised through and just got better as he got older.

“Instead, he’s one of the great batsmen of this century, for sure.”

While Root is no doubt one of the great Test bats in modern history, Craddock still thinks there’s one asterisk he’d like to erase by the time his career is up – scoring a century in Australia.

“I say this, he is still lacking a century in Australia, that’s the asterisk on his record,” Craddock said.

“He’s never really bothered Australia in Australia like Michael Vaughan did on one tour.

“If you said to him, ‘You could change one thing about your career’, it would be that.

“When you're comparing average players, you look at their highlights. When you're comparing the greats, you look at what they didn't do, and he never overly threatened Australia to a huge degree in Australia.”

Root’s highest score down under in Tests is 89, while he averages 35.68 from the 14 Ashes Tests he’s played in Australia.