Pundits Laud England's Old-School Root For Patient Century

England's Joe Root was roundly praised Friday after becoming the first batsman to make 10 Test centuries against India after departing from his team's attacking strategy and back to more conservative cricket.

'Phenomenal knock'

Root came out at the fall of Ollie Pope's wicket for a duck and witnessed Zak Crawley get bowled on 42 before he got down to the grind with Jonny Bairstow, another batsman to struggle this series.

England soon lost Bairstow for 38 and then skipper Ben Stokes at the stroke of lunch but Root remained determined in his 226-ball stay, which witnessed just one reverse sweep off Ravichandran Ashwin.

"This is the Joe Root mode that win you Test matches!" South African great AB de Villiers wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Root reached his 31st Test ton with a boundary off debutant fast bowler Akash Deep -- who captured three wickets in the first hour of play -- and took off his helmet and raised his bat in a muted celebration.

"Phenomenal knock," Crawley said after the day's play.

"He's probably the only bloke in our team who could have done that knock. He's that good, he's our best player and he's stepped up when we needed him to," he said.

"We needed him to get a score and he got a score like he's done for so many years now, he's a phenomenal player."

Root made 11,493 Test runs in his 138 previous matches, with an average of close to 50, since his debut in 2012.

Root is now ahead of former Australia captain Steve Smith, who has nine career Test centuries against India.