Joe Root dedicated his 33rd Test century to the late Graham Thorpe, saluting the heavens upon reaching three figures in tribute to his former coach and friend.
“Thorpey was one of those people who offered me so much,” Root said at stumps having made 143 at Lord’s on the first day of the second Test against Sri Lanka before he fell in the final session, fluffing a reverse-scoop to backward point. “It was nice to be able to think of him in that moment. He’s someone I’m sorely going to miss and who I owe a lot to. He put a lot into my game, into my career and without his help I definitely wouldn’t be where I am now.”
Root now sits level with Sir Alastair Cook as England’s top century-maker and is only 198 runs away from becoming his country’s top Test run scorer. With seven fifty-plus scores in his past 11 innings, including three hundreds, Root is in rich form.
The same cannot be said of his stand-in captain, Ollie Pope, who once again failed when he top-edged a back-of-a-length ball and was caught for one.
“It’s so easy to make it something when it isn’t at all,” Root said in response to questions around Pope’s ability to score runs and lead the side simultaneously. “He seems to be in a really good place with it. That’s more of a storyline for [the media] to play around with. For him, it’s business as usual, go out there and play in the manner that has given him so much success.”
Root said he was “a little bit twitchy” on 99, where he was stuck for 12 deliveries. “You can’t not hear the crowd,” he said. “There is an element of relief when you cross the line.”
Relief and love. Root was visibly emotional when paying homage to Thorpe, someone whom he credits with shaping “pretty much all” of his game. “He was involved with the England Lions and before I’d even made a hundred in a first-class game he picked me for a Lions game,” Root said. “We became good friends and I really enjoyed spending a lot of time with him. It was nice to pay a small tribute. He means a lot to me and that was, I guess, a small thank-you.”
Meanwhile, MCC dismissed concerns over the level of ticket sales for day four of the game on Sunday. A statement said: “Across the first three days of the Test match against Sri Lanka, we’re delighted that Lord’s will be near to capacity, closely matching the sellout against West Indies in July. The sales throughout the summer of 2024 have been the best outside an Ashes year.
“Day four has been slower, likely in part to England’s dominant performance here earlier this summer and the end of the school holidays, but we continue to encourage people to come to day four, including under-16s’ tickets from £15.”
