Sri Lanka’s Kaushal Silva and Kumar Sangakkara offered stubborn resistance on the second day of the opening test at Lord’s after Joe Root put England in control by hitting his maiden test double ton.
The 23-year-old Root, dropped for the final Ashes test during England’s 5-0 whitewash Down Under, brought up his 200 with a dab behind square after a well compiled innings that featured 16 boundaries from 298 balls.
“Rooty, to go on and get 100, and then today, the big hundred that we talk about, the game changer, is really important,” wicketkeeper Matt Prior, who fell 14 runs short of a century of his own, said at a news conference.
“A double hundred at Lord’s, what a fantastic effort.”
Alastair Cook immediately declared the innings on 575-9 once Root had reached his milestone, leaving Sri Lanka openers Silva and Dimuth Karunaratne to negotiate a tricky spell before tea
