Joe Root finds frustration again in his search for Test perfection | Ali Martin

Most batsmen would be delighted with the year Root has had, but he is irked to have often fallen with a century there for the taking. In Chennai, the story was the same

If Joe Root was just a regular batsman he would look back on 2016 with little but fondness, having scored more heavily in Test cricket than ever before and during this time produced a career-best score of 254 against Pakistan in the summer.

With one innings to go in Chennai, Root has returned 1,471 runs – a total that has him two ahead of Jonny Bairstow as the pair vie to overhaul Michael Vaughan’s England record of 1,481 in 2002 – and for the second year running has matched a record he shares with India’s Virender Sehwag of having made 13 scores in excess of fifty. In short, it has been a pretty handy 12 months for the Yorkshireman.

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