Joe Root is fast approaching the Test record of most fifties

[Ab Fan]

Right then, Joe Root currently has played 90 tests(166 innings) and has 46 fifties to his name. He is currently sitting at no.14 spot in the list of most test half centuries across the whole career.

The record stands at 68 fifties right now by of course, Sachin Tendulkar, across 329 innings. But it's pretty much given that Joe Root will easily break this record. Even if Root scores his half centuries at half of his rate from now onwards, he will reach to 69 fifties by the time he plays 332 innings and somewhere close to 180 tests, which means he would have still broken the record of most half centuries by a test batsmen across his overall career.

The point of the discussion remains that how exactly do we evaluate this milestone, scoring a half century can't be called a 'failure' by any standards and Root has done it with such consistency that it is phenomenal. Unfortunately, his test hundreds are just 17 over 166 innings, which is a ratio of 1 hundred in 10 test innings.

Discuss!

 

[sweep_shot]

I don't think fifties are significant. If anything, it shows that he can't convert his fifties well.

 

[Mobashir]

Convertion is over-rated. Root is a brilliant test batsman and is very very consistant.

I know it's exaggerating, but in match situations, we will all take 5 score of 50 rather than 1 score of 250 and 4 ducks.

Root often plays on difficult batting tracks were fifties play a huge role in the success of his team.

 

[ManFan]

“Smokin” Joe 50’.

 

[BreadPakoda]

Always wondered if 100s should also count in the 50s tally or not.

 

[Hasan123]

He is a top class player. Seems as though he only gets so much hate because PP don't like England.

 

[transparent opacity]

joe root is a great test player but i still feel he is overrated. i don't understand why he is included in fab four list. surely not on the basis of impactless fifties. besides he is very mediocre in loi.

 

[HappyWarsFan]

He is a top class player. Seems as though he only gets so much hate because PP don't like England.

You are wrong. On other cricket forums I use like Reddit, they all hate on root and slag him off. In fact PP is kinder to him than most.

 

[Hasan123]

You are wrong. On other cricket forums I use like Reddit, they all hate on root and slag him off. In fact PP is kinder to him than most.

Don't understand why he is so disliked. He just gets on with his job and stays out of the limelight.

 

[Mobashir]

joe root is a great test player but i still feel he is overrated. i don't understand why he is included in fab four list. surely not on the basis of impactless fifties. besides he is very mediocre in loi.

He is the youngest of the 4 and has the most test runs.
In LOI'S, Smith doesn't really count as he hasn't played the formats enough.
Kohli is ahead of the other two but Root is no way behind Williamson.

 

[praveen]

No modern English batsman averages above 50. Getting hundreds is the best way to stay above 50’s. Root needs to convert.

 

[Varun]

A 50 in test cricket is akin to reaching the Everest Base Camp.

Decent effort, but even a no. 11 can do it on a good day. The challenge is to carry on.

 

[transparent opacity]

He is the youngest of the 4 and has the most test runs.
In LOI'S, Smith doesn't really count as he hasn't played the formats enough.
Kohli is ahead of the other two but Root is no way behind Williamson.

yes but he averages less than fifty.
bro williamson is way better than root in loi's. even babar is better than root in loi's.

 

[Ab Fan]

Root certainly seems to be getting back into the form in the past few months. He got a brilliant double hundred in New Zealand and has been doing well in this series also. I think we can surely conclude a couple of weakness that Root has.

1) He is not a good captain or a leader. Honestly, it's not just his batting which has an effect but as a captain also he is not that good with on field tactics and decision making. Vaughan and Strauss weren't great batters when captained but were still good captains. Root isn't.

2) Another one is that he needs a fairly better top order to get that prolific run scoring keep flowing from his bat which is also why he is not suited to no.3 position. A good top order releases that extra pressure from him when he comes to bat and finds things much easier for himself.

 

[Ab Fan]

A 50 in test cricket is akin to reaching the Everest Base Camp.

Decent effort, but even a no. 11 can do it on a good day. The challenge is to carry on.

Anderson is a no.11 and has scored one 50 over 150+ tests. It's not as easy to do it on a consistent basis. 46 fifties in 90 tests means that he scores fifties for you once in every 4th inning outside of the 17 centuries he got in those 90 tests.

 

[Manunited18]

Anderson is a no.11 and has scored one 50 over 150+ tests. It's not as easy to do it on a consistent basis. 46 fifties in 90 tests means that he scores fifties for you once in every 4th inning outside of the 17 centuries he got in those 90 tests.

It's plain simple, once the rest of the top order scores runs consistently then root will convert 50's in to hundreds.

 

[Aman]

He only has that many 50s because he can't convert.

Having that record is only good if you have 40-50 100s as well, something Root doesn't have.

 

[leatherface58]

Leave alone the fifties, he averages 52 when not captain as opposed to 42 as captain and it was below 40 until that double ton. It is clear captaincy has taken its toll on him much like it did on other English captains. Compare that with Kohli, Smith, and Williamson whose stats have improved when given the captaincy.

 

[JibranAnsari]

He has 10 scores between 80 and 100 ans 23 scores between 70 and 100s So half of his 50s can be categorized as 70s. One would argue that he should have converted at least 10 of those 23 innings int0 100s and his record would look much better but do t underestimate the vslue of his BIG 50s.

 

[HappyWarsFan]

He has 10 scores between 80 and 100 ans 23 scores between 70 and 100s So half of his 50s can be categorized as 70s. One would argue that he should have converted at least 10 of those 23 innings int0 100s and his record would look much better but do t underestimate the vslue of his BIG 50s.

Roots useless 81 or.whatever to post score of 350 will.not do anything. He should be making something like 120+ to ensure the team posts 450+ which is a match winning total.

 

[Manunited18]

Joe root is doing well as Joe root can do, the team are bang average at moment, imminent transition issues pending once Anderson broad quit, no spinners, lol no wonder

 

[Robert]

In these days of almost no good test batsmen, consistent test fifties are significant! He scores enough runs for England to win a few tests.

As soon as Rooty relinquishes the captaincy, he will start racking up the centuries again.

 

[Robert]

Leave alone the fifties, he averages 52 when not captain as opposed to 42 as captain and it was below 40 until that double ton. It is clear captaincy has taken its toll on him much like it did on other English captains. Compare that with Kohli, Smith, and Williamson whose stats have improved when given the captaincy.

Nearly all England batters lose run production as skipper. There must be something about the job that takes them out of the Zone.

The exception was Gooch who averaged 42 when not skipper and 57 when skipper. It may have been that his great mate Keith Fletcher the coach did the off-field captaincy duties for him.

It may therefore make sense to promote someone who is not the best batter, leaving Root to pile on the runs as he did before he was skipper.

 

[leatherface58]

Nearly all England batters lose run production as skipper. There must be something about the job that takes them out of the Zone.

The exception was Gooch who averaged 42 when not skipper and 57 when skipper. It may have been that his great mate Keith Fletcher the coach did the off-field captaincy duties for him.

It may therefore make sense to promote someone who is not the best batter, leaving Root to pile on the runs as he did before he was skipper.

I guess that is why, YJB is secretly poisoning everyone in the English team so he can take over the captaincy himself. That way, the best batsman in the team can get his mojo back. Truly selfless.

 

[Mamoon]

He is an outstanding batsman who rarely fails against any attack in any conditions. He also gets a lot of 70s and 80s as mentioned.

If his conversion rate wasn’t terrible, he would have had 30+ hundreds already. He definitely needs to improve on that front.

He is comfortably better than Williamson and it is reflected in their numbers against the good attacks. If anyone doesn’t deserve to be part of the Fab Four, it is the Kiwi captain.

 

[James]

Root is a very good batsman as demonstrated by the figures - but what’s really important is being a *matchwinning* batsman. Someone who doesn’t convert a reasonable number of their fifties into centuries is probably not that.

It is the centurions who can be relied on to win the big Test matches, and to save the impossible ones.

For England batsmen just from this era (and that’s without going back further) I would put Cook and KP above Root.

Cook converted 35% of fifty scores into his 33 Test hundreds, while KP (23 Test hundreds) incredibly got to the century milestone over 40% of the time after reaching fifty. Meanwhile, young Joe (17 Test hundreds) unfortunately has got there barely 25% of the time when earlier reaching a fifty score. This number is in dire need of improvement.

It means that currently most England fans would agree on placing Cook and KP in an all-time team XI, whereas Root would probably not yet cut the mustard for many of us.

 

[jnaveen1980]

Check his ODIs, First class, List A. Same story. Just not in him to convert the starts. I am sure he probably played a lot of mediocre teams in the first class. If he can't convert even there then there is problem with his concentration, focus.

 

[Robert]

Root is a very good batsman as demonstrated by the figures - but what’s really important is being a *matchwinning* batsman. Someone who doesn’t convert a reasonable number of their fifties into centuries is probably not that.

It is the centurions who can be relied on to win the big Test matches, and to save the impossible ones.

For England batsmen just from this era (and that’s without going back further) I would put Cook and KP above Root.

Cook converted 35% of fifty scores into his 33 Test hundreds, while KP (23 Test hundreds) incredibly got to the century milestone over 40% of the time after reaching fifty. Meanwhile, young Joe (17 Test hundreds) unfortunately has got there barely 25% of the time when earlier reaching a fifty score. This number is in dire need of improvement.

It means that currently most England fans would agree on placing Cook and KP in an all-time team XI, whereas Root would probably not yet cut the mustard for many of us.

KP yes. In my lifetime I would put Boycott, Gooch and Stewart ahead of Cook who was vulnerable to really good quicks. I would have:

Boycott
Gooch
Gower
KP
Thorpe
Botham
Knott
Swann
Gough
Willis
Anderson / Broad *

* depends on Duke or Kookaburra use

 

[Varun]

KP yes. In my lifetime I would put Boycott, Gooch and Stewart ahead of Cook who was vulnerable to really good quicks. I would have:

Boycott
Gooch
Gower
KP
Thorpe
Botham
Knott
Swann
Gough
Willis
Anderson / Broad *

* depends on Duke or Kookaburra use

It's quite telling that nobody on that list averages 50+ with the bat, or 25- with the ball.

 

[Mamoon]

While playing a lot of Tests is beneficial because it allows you to maximize your good form, it is also counter-productive. England plays a lot of matches and no team players more matches in tougher conditions than they do.

This also means that when their players are struggling, they cannot get out of the firing line and recuperate.

For example, a South African batsman might have a lean home summer but then he goes away for 6 months and people either forget his poor form or he regains his touch.

The likes of Cook and Pietersen are clearly better than some of the 50+ average batsmen like Mahela or Younis for example.

 

[James]

It's quite telling that nobody on that list averages 50+ with the bat, or 25- with the ball.

Goes back to my point about matchwinning players. The ability to singlehandedly win a Test match with a batting, bowling or all-round performance, often in a perilous match situation - or to save a Test match from an impossible position - far outweighs paper-based batting averages and bowling averages. If you look at the list of players in the XI produced by [MENTION=7774]Robert[/MENTION] they are all genuine matchwinning players.

 

[Anwar]

It’s somewhat unfortunate for Root that he had to be captain and clearly wasn’t ready or not suited for it at all. England don’t really have any other option at this stage.

It looks like he is finally scoring runs with the burden of captaincy which he may end up keeping for a number of years to come.

He’s still under 30 and has time to play a lot of career defining innings and will definitely go down as England’s best middle order batsman.

 

[Robert]

Goes back to my point about matchwinning players. The ability to singlehandedly win a Test match with a batting, bowling or all-round performance, often in a perilous match situation - or to save a Test match from an impossible position - far outweighs paper-based batting averages and bowling averages. If you look at the list of players in the XI produced by [MENTION=7774]Robert[/MENTION] they are all genuine matchwinning players.

Root averaged 70 when he was coming in behind KP. Has he struggled to step out of KP’s shadow? His record from 2012-15 would suggest no, he continued to be dominant.

But the captaincy has clearly cut his run production down. Having to do a lot of repair jobs due to a very weak top order has not helped.

 

[Pakhs]

No modern English batsman averages above 50. Getting hundreds is the best way to stay above 50’s. Root needs to convert.

A 50 in test cricket is akin to reaching the Everest Base Camp.

Decent effort, but even a no. 11 can do it on a good day. The challenge is to carry on.

Anderson is a no.11 and has scored one 50 over 150+ tests. It's not as easy to do it on a consistent basis. 46 fifties in 90 tests means that he scores fifties for you once in every 4th inning outside of the 17 centuries he got in those 90 tests.

Given he plays half of his matches in England and then half away where his conversion rate is slightly better even though those are difficult away conditions for him. This shows that its not a given a player will go on and make a 100 in England just because he crossed 50. In other countries and specially in Asia its much easier and no significant Asian player ever had this issue of poor conversion rate in Asian conditions where its generally harder to start but once you are in it becomes easier and easier to bat until you get out.

 

[Varun]

Goes back to my point about matchwinning players. The ability to singlehandedly win a Test match with a batting, bowling or all-round performance, often in a perilous match situation - or to save a Test match from an impossible position - far outweighs paper-based batting averages and bowling averages. If you look at the list of players in the XI produced by [MENTION=7774]Robert[/MENTION] they are all genuine matchwinning players.

Other countries such as Australia, India, Pakistan or South Africa can come up with such a list, which will feature players both with averages better than their English counterparts, and arguably with greater match winning capabilities.

 

[Varun]

Given he plays half of his matches in England and then half away where his conversion rate is slightly better even though those are difficult away conditions for him. This shows that its not a given a player will go on and make a 100 in England just because he crossed 50. In other countries and specially in Asia its much easier and no significant Asian player ever had this issue of poor conversion rate in Asian conditions where its generally harder to start but once you are in it becomes easier and easier to bat until you get out.

Joe Root:

Average in England: 51.55
Average Away: 44.11

Conversion in England: 48%
Conversion Away: 26%

 

[Pakhs]

Joe Root:

Average in England: 51.55
Average Away: 44.11

Conversion in England: 48%
Conversion Away: 26%

Sorry and thanks for correcting me! Last time i checked he was scoring less 50s away I must have got my stats criteria wrong.

 

[JibranAnsari]

Roots useless 81 or.whatever to post score of 350 will.not do anything. He should be making something like 120+ to ensure the team posts 450+ which is a match winning total.

9 of them 23 came in victories and 10 in losses , even stevens. Cant term as useless.

 

[Pk716]

Most 50's seems silly as 100's won't be counted in half centuries list.It would be great if he scores at least most number of 50 plus scores .

 

[Ab Fan]

He is an outstanding batsman who rarely fails against any attack in any conditions. He also gets a lot of 70s and 80s as mentioned.

If his conversion rate wasn’t terrible, he would have had 30+ hundreds already. He definitely needs to improve on that front.

He is comfortably better than Williamson and it is reflected in their numbers against the good attacks. If anyone doesn’t deserve to be part of the Fab Four, it is the Kiwi captain.

A shame really that such a massively talented batsmen can't convert his 50s into 100s and has to depend on 10 other blokes in the team to decide the course of a match. He should have been at the levels of Kohli and Smith but he is several levels below them.

 

[Chief Destroyer]

Hence named Joe Fifty by yours truly.

 

[Robert]

A shame really that such a massively talented batsmen can't convert his 50s into 100s and has to depend on 10 other blokes in the team to decide the course of a match. He should have been at the levels of Kohli and Smith but he is several levels below them.

Can't is not acurate given that the man has seventeen test centuries including three doubles.

 

[Robert]

Eleven centuries in 43 tests when not captain, so about one in four.

Six centuries in 37 tests as captain, so about one in six.

So if he had not been promoted, he would have 20-21 centuries by now.

 

[Ab Fan]

Fifty no. 48 for Joe Root

 

[Mamoon]

A lot of his half-centuries have been better than certain centuries of other batsmen.

A brilliant batsman.

 

[Ab Fan]

A lot of his half-centuries have been better than certain centuries of other batsmen.

A brilliant batsman.

Hardly. He is basically a Chanderpaul like accumulator. Good for ineffective fifties, Williamson is better.

 

[Ab Fan]

^ He should learn to become a legend like Younis Khan was, has won tons of matches for his country.

 

[Mamoon]

Hardly. He is basically a Chanderpaul like accumulator. Good for ineffective fifties, Williamson is better.

Root is a class above Williamson against quality bowling. Williamson is clearly better when it comes to being prolific against mediocre bowling.

 

[Ab Fan]

Root is a class above Williamson against quality bowling. Williamson is clearly better when it comes to being prolific against mediocre bowling.

Williamson wins his team matches by scoring big hundreds and double and triple hundreds. Root scores only 50.

 

[Mamoon]

Williamson wins his team matches by scoring big hundreds and double and triple hundreds. Root scores only 50.

I agree, but only against weak attacks. There is hardly any comparison between the two when you look at their respective records against the top sides.

Williamson is easily the most overrated batsman of this generation and the weakest member of the Fab Four.

He escapes a lot of criticism because of his good guy image and the low profile of New Zealand cricket.

 

[Sin Nombre]

Root gets a lot of criticism because he is considered a peer of Kohli and Smith.

It is very similar to Murray in tennis (who had to deal with 2 age group ATG/GOAT contenders).

Both are excellent players in their sports and only a notch below ATG level (extrapolating career wise in Root's case).

 

[Ball Blazer]

Most 50+ scores in the fourth innings of Tests:

13 - Shivnarine Chanderpaul
13 - Chris Gayle
13 - Graeme Smith
𝟭𝟯 - 𝗝𝗼𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝘁

 

[ElRaja]

think he also has the most runs in the 4th innings too now, great batsman.

 

[mominsaigol]

Root has been denied the ability to break sachin's 50 record cause he scored 3 centuries this tour.