Cricket

Joe Root breaks Sachin Tendulkar's world record, outdoes Master Blaster to score most Test half-centuries

September 12, 2026

Joe Root has officially surpassed Sachin Tendulkar to claim the world record for the highest number of half-centuries in Test cricket. The 35-year-old England captain reached this milestone at Edgbaston in Birmingham during the third Test against Pakistan, hitting an unbeaten 62 off 69 balls to guide his side to an eight-wicket win and seal a 3-0 series sweep.

That innings lifted his career total to 69 Test fifties, moving him ahead of Tendulkar's 68, with Shivnarine Chanderpaul (66), Allan Border (63), and Rahul Dravid (63) trailing behind. The knock also brought some personal relief for Root, who had experienced a quiet five innings yielding just 164 runs without a hundred and featuring two single-digit dismissals.

The series outcome marked a triumphant start to Root's second stint as Test skipper following Ben Stokes's retirement from international cricket earlier this year, despite Root going without a triple-figure score across six consecutive home Tests against New Zealand and Pakistan. Beyond the fifties milestone, Root has also built his career tally to 14,278 runs across 309 innings, leaving him only 1,014 runs shy of Tendulkar's all-time record aggregate of 15,291 runs in 329 innings.