On Friday, 5 February, against India in Chennai, Joe Root played his 100th Test match, a little over eight years after making his international debut. According to ashes news, in anticipation of this momentous occasion, let’s take a look back at the  most memorable moments from Root’s Test career.

•    Maiden Test ton vs New Zealand – May 2013 –

That week, Root had a chance to become just the ninth English batsman to reach 20 hundred in Test matches. Five months after making his Test cricket debut, he struck the first of his 19 hundred, again against New Zealand.

Root, who was playing in his sixth Test, came in when the side was 67/3 and helped revive the innings by putting up partnerships of 79 runs with Ian Bell (30) and 124 runs with Jonny Bairstow (64). He had already shown the type of patience in his maiden half-century that would lead to a long and successful career in Test cricket. His first hundred expanded on his promise as a future superstar. His hundred came off the 156th delivery of the innings, and he celebrated it with great fervor.

• When he brought up his century, with a clip past slip off the 156th delivery of his innings, he celebrated the moment with gusto –

Tragically, he scored a hundred in his debut Test at Headingley. He had spent his whole life in Yorkshire, England. Publication of the first test version: December 2012

How appropriate that Root played his first Test match in 2012 against India in Nagpur. He also happened to play his 50th Test match in India. Root, who was given cap number 265 by Paul Collingwood, was brought into the England lineup for the last match of the tour to help shore up the batting order and defend the team’s hard-won series advantage.

He had settled in at No. 6 in the Test lineup and now England was in a precarious position at 119/4, with him stepping out to bat. The young batsman, just 21 years old, handled the strain well and scored 73 runs off 229 balls in his first Test.

As Alastair Cook’s side hung on for a draw and England won their first Test series in India in 28 years, he scored 20 runs without being dismissed. After then, no visiting team has been able to win a series in India.

•   First Ashes ton – July 2013 –

Root only needed two games to make his mark on cricket’s oldest rivalry, the Ashes, which is played between England and Australia. Although Root was promoted to open the batting with skipper Alastair Cook in 2013, he scored just 41 runs throughout his first three innings.

This would have been his fourth at-bat of the season, and he was teetering between Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke when he might have been out for 8. Instead, he scored 180 runs in the second innings at Lord’s, giving Australia an impossible 593-run goal. The team lost by 347 runs, falling behind by two games to none with three Tests remaining, and well knowing that England had unearthed a particular talent in the young batsman.

The performance was a mix of patience and cunning, as the batsman waited out the Australian bowlers early in the innings before capitalizing when the hosts’ enthusiasm and spirit had dwindled.

• First double-century – June 2014 –

If Joe Root’s 180 in the match against Australia at Lord’s in 2013 wasn’t enough of a demonstration that he likes batting there, he upped his game in the match against Sri Lanka the following year. Root was England’s go-to hitter on a pitch that was excellent for batting, and Sri Lanka was only able to cling on for a draw by one wicket. The surface was favorable for batting.

The fifth batter faced 298 balls and was on the field for 500 minutes, scoring a perfect 200. His 200 was his first ever in a Test match. On the eve of his 100th Test, he already has four double centuries, a feat surpassed by just two other English players.

•  Dominating India – July-August, 2014 –

A strong performance at home in 2014 against India, in which he scored 518 runs at an astounding average of 103.60 over five Tests, further added to the buzz around Root. To this day, it’s still Root’s highest run total in a series.

The stylish right-hander got his series off to a great start with an unbroken 154, most of which was accumulated in the company of the tail and included important contributions from Stuart Broad (47) and James Anderson (37). (81). After being in a precarious position at 202/7, it propelled the hosts to a final score of 496. With Anderson, he shared in a record-breaking 198-run 10th wicket partnership, 36 more than the previous high.

In the last game of the series, he scored an undefeated 149 runs off 165 balls, smashing 18 fours and a six to dash any remaining chances India had of tying the series.

• A memorable Ashes series and ascent to the top of the ICC Test batting rankings — July-August 2015 –

In the 2015 Ashes, two of cricket’s most promising young batters squared up against one other.

After averaging 128.16 in both the Border-Gavaskar series and the West Indies tour, Australian cricketer Steve Smith made the trip to the United Kingdom. Root’s lifetime batting average before the match was 54.11.

These four players, together with Virat Kohli of India and Kane Williamson of New Zealand, were widely considered to be the best batters in the world during the following decade. All four have proven to be worthy of the anticipation they first aroused.

With a fantastic 134 off 166, Root got England off to a great start in this campaign, winning the first game of the series. Having won the toss and opted to bat first, Cook put England under strain early in his innings, with the emerging star stepping out to bat at 43/3.

After bowling Australia out for 60 at Trent Bridge, he struck another hundred later in the series to add insult to injury, and his efforts propelled him to the top of the ICC’s Test batting rankings.

He had scored 460 runs at 57.50 after the fifth Test and shared player of the series honors with Australia’s Chris Rogers (480 runs at 60).