Twitter Reactions: Joe Root welcomes Test captaincy with a ton

Joe Root will remember the 6th of July 2017 for decades to come. The day could not have been more special for him as he scored a century on Test captaincy debut. He also became the 6th England player to score a century on Test captaincy debut after Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Archie MacLaren and Allen Lamb. And the knock has come at the Mecca of cricket Lord’s, an affair Root will not forget ever. This was also his 12th Test ton and 28th Test half century.

Earlier, England won the toss and opted to bat first. The top order, Cook, Keaton Jennings and Gary Ballance were all dismissed on meagre scores, on 3, 8 and 20 respectively. But then walked out the skipper on his first assignment, and stabilised the innings. He was named as the successor of Alastair Cook five months ago and got to lead the team for the first time today.

Ballance, on the other hand, could not make the most of his recall in the first innings as he was dismissed for 20 by Morne Morkel. Root had his share of luck as JP Duminy dropped him at gully pretty early in his innings, the skipper then stitched a crucial partnership with allrounder Ben Stokes where they denied the Proteas any success in the middle part of the day.

Stokes got to his half century as Root inched closer to his hundred, the left-hander got out after scoring his fifty for 56 but the determined skipper knew his job was not done yet. He stayed on and reached triple figures, pulled his helmet off whipped his bat in the air and kissed the helmet as former captain Cook along with other teammates rose in the Lord’s balcony to applaud him for the effort.

He wasn’t done yet and converted his century into a 150 soon as England went past the 300-run mark after being 4 down for 76.

Twitterati was in awe of Joe Root’s effort and tweets flooded in to laud him for his consistent brilliance