Joe Root dedicated his record-equalling 33rd Test century to his mentor Graham Thorpe, who passed away earlier this month. The former England captain pointed at the sky and paid tribute to one of the greatest English batters of all time.

Thorpe had a great influence on Root’s batting style and remarked that he wouldn’t have reached this milestone without him.

“I’ve been very lucky to work with a lot of people, whether it be senior players, coaches, mentors, and Thorpey was one of those people that offered me so much,” Root said after notching up 143 runs off 206 deliveries against Sri Lanka in the 2nd Test in London.

“It was nice to be able to think of him in that moment. He’s someone that I’m going to sorely miss. He put a lot into my game, into my career, and without his help, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am now.”

Recalling his time with Thorpe, Root said that the England great recognized his talent and worked tirelessly with him, to develop his skills against different variations of the ball.

“The first time I came across him was a second-team game at Stamford Bridge for Yorkshire against Surrey [in 2010],” Root recalled. “The following year, I made my way into the County Championship team and he was involved with the England Lions. Before I’d even made a hundred at first-class level, he picked me for a Lions game against Sri Lanka at Scarborough.

“He saw something with me, and pushed hard for me to go away that winter and worked with him. We worked tirelessly on my game against spin – being able to get close to the ball, get away from it, utilising different sweeps – and also against pace… working very hard to make sure that those areas of the game which are different to county cricket, you are up to speed with.”

England were 358/7 at stumps on Day 1 with Gus Atkinson (78 not out) and Matthew Potts (20 not out) at the crease when umpired called it a day.