Stats: Most fifties for players in consecutive Test matches

Joe Root carried his glorious form into the Test series against West Indies as the newly appointed England Test captain scored an unbeaten hundred before the dinner break on day 1 of the day/night Test at the Edgbaston. This was the 11th consecutive Test match in which Root has managed to score a fifty plus score in at least one innings.

Thus he broke the England record of most fifties for players in consecutive Test matches, held by John Edrich with fifty-plus scores in 10 consecutive Tests. Root now stands only behind AB de Villiers in the overall list as the South African scored 50+ in 12 consecutive Test matches between 2012 and 2014. Four other players have scored a fifty in 11 consecutive matches like Root.

West Indian legend Viv Richards was the first to record the feat, way back in 1976 and 1977. Indian openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag also had such streaks between 2008 and 2010. During that time, the duo played a crucial role in India’s rise to No.1 spot in Test cricket. Bangladesh’s Mominul Haq was the most recent player to record fifty-plus scores in 11 consecutive Tests; he did so between 2013 and 2015.

Root, who took over the captaincy duties from the recently concluded Test series against South Africa at home, has now scored at least one fifty-plus score in all the 5 Test matches as captain. Thus he became only the 5th captain to score fifty-plus scores in each of his first 5 Test matches.

England’s Peter May recorded fifty-plus score in each of his first 8 Tests matches while Misbah-ul-Haq and Stephen Fleming scored at least one fifty-plus score for six and five Tests from their captaincy debuts respectively. Former England captain, Alastair Cook also registered the feat as he scored centuries in each of his first five Tests as captain.

Most consecutive Test matches with at least one fifty-plus score:

(Stats as on August 17, 2017)