Joe Root Scores Ton in a Test Match on Captaincy Debut, 7th Englishman to do so Thursday July 06,2017

England skipper Joe Root has added a new milestone in his already illustrious cap as he slammed a century on his captaincy debut to help the hosts recover in the first innings of the first Test against South Africa at Lord's on Thursday July 06,2017

Joe Root came to bat when the Proteas bowlers were breathing fire and England were reeling at 17/2 early on in the innings. Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings had been dismissed while Gary Ballance and Jonny Bairstow soon followed suit as England's score read 76/4 at one point.

That is when Joe Root and Ben Stokes stitched a much needed partnership and slammed their respective half-centuries to take the hosts out of trouble. However, Stokes fell for 56 but Root kept on going and notched up his 12th century in the longest format of the game.

By doing so, Root became only the seventh Englishman ever to score century on captaincy debut. 
The others are - 

1. William Murdoch
2.  Archibald MacLaren
3. Allan Lamb
4. Andrew Strauss
5. Kevin Pietersen and 
6. Alastair Cook. 

Joe Root  is the 30th player overall to achieve this feat in Test cricket. 

The last player to do so was Australia skipper Steven Smith, who slammed century on his captaincy debut against India at the Brisbane Cricket Ground in the 2014 series. 

While in the same series, Virat Kohli too slammed a century on captaincy debut at the Adelaide Cricket Ground in the previous match.