“It’s watching someone like Kallis play”: Root’s special praise for England’s unsung hero on Day 1 against SL

London [UK], August 30 (ANI): England batter Joe Root had special praise for Gus Atkinson after witnessing his stroke play on the opening day of the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Lord’s.

Root took a step closer to claiming going down into the history books as England’s most famed Test batter.

The 33-year-old looked flawless against Sri Lanka’s bowling set-up and raised his bat to celebrate his record-levelling 33rd Test ton.

Apart from celebrating the momentous occasion, it was Atkinson who caught the attention of Root. The experienced batter had the opportunity to witness Atkinson punish Sri Lanka bowlers, creating a sight to behold for Root as well as the spectators.

While showering praise on the pacer, Root felt that shades of South Africa’s iconic all-rounder Jacques Kallis were quite evident in the 26-year-old’s style of play.

“Yeah, it was good, it was nice. I’ll tell you why I was good watching Gussy bat at the end, being at the other end when he hit those straight sixes, they were unbelievable believers. It’s like watching someone like Jacques Kallis play. It was a great little innings from him, and there was some good partnerships along the way,” Root said in a video posted by England Cricket on X.

Atkinson remained unbeaten (74*) at the end of the day after raising his bat for his maiden fifty. Despite the entertaining show that Atkinson put on towards the end of the day, the headlines belonged to Root for his remarkable feat.

He levelled former England captain Alastair Cook’s record of 33 Test centuries for England, the most by any batter in their entire cricketing history.

Root opened up about the relationship he shares with Cook and said, “Yeah, it’s obviously nice, but it’s just, I guess you try, you pride yourself on trying to contribute and helping put the team in a winning position. We’ve had a few laughs and jokes about things, but Cookie’s always been someone for me to look up to, bounce ideas off, and talk to, and felt under pressure or things haven’t been going well, and he’s been very supportive and helpful, and it’s great to have people like that in and around you.”

England ended the day with a score of 358/7 and will look to put runs on the board before Sri Lanka batters come out to bat.