Joe Root scored his 20th ODI century against Sri Lanka in the final match of the series between the two sides in Colombo. Katya Witney ranks all of those hundreds, from worst to best.
Root made his ODI debut almost 13 years ago and, next to his greatness in the Test arena, his ODI freakishness is often overshadowed. A genuine great of the format and undoubtedly England’s greatest No.3 of all time, he’s also now arguably leading the pack behind Virat Kohli as the best ODI first-drop ever across all teams.
After a brief dip after 2019 between World Cups, Root has been back to his prolific best since the beginning of last year, and has scored four hundreds since then. Where they fit among the standards of the centuries he’s scored across his career, however, is what we’re looking to find out here.
All 20 of Joe Root’s ODI hundreds, ranked from worst to best
20. 101 (108) vs West Indies, Bridgetown, 2017
Before we get to the big beasts, we need to deal with the shrapnel first. These are the run of the mill Root hundreds, so blasé you hardly notice he’s got them, and of course they all came off near enough a run a ball. On one of England’s many white-ball tours of the West Indies, Root peeled off a no-sweat ton, as a team on the march to 2019 glory posted a standard 300+ score. Perhaps there’s something special in how little special there was about it.
19. 125 (113) vs South Africa, Centurion, 2016
Copy and paste from the previous entry. Root 125 in a 300+ score while a couple of others chipped in. It actually wasn’t enough to get England over the line on that occasion, playing against a good South Africa side on a flat deck.
18. 102 (97) vs West Indies, Bridgetown, 2019
England were in their full pomp at the start of 2019, but the West Indies ran them closer in this game than most could. Root’s brisk ton anchored them in a steep chase, second fiddle to a rapid Jason Roy century, illustrating once again that no total was safe against England at that time.
17. 102 (101) vs New Zealand, Dunedin, 2018
A run a ball, setting a 300+ target, flat wicket. Not quite enough in the face of a Ross Taylor all-timer.
16. 107 (122) vs West Indies, North Sound, 2014
This was actually Root’s first ODI hundred, which he finally got over the line 26 innings after making his debut. It also followed an Ashes mauling in Australia in which Root had been dropped from the Test side and was facing the first serious crisis of his career. Breaking his hundred duck reaffirmed his class and potential as the player England would build their new foundations on.
15. 100 (96) vs South Africa, Southampton, 2025
Having re-established himself as a dominant ODI force, Root played a supporting role to a new future powerhouse last summer. He knocked off exactly 100 while Jacob Bethell flaunted himself at the other end, Jos Buttler coming in later to see England past 400
14. 113 (108) vs India, Leeds, 2014
This one ups the calibre a bit. Back in 2014 when England weren’t good at ODIs, hence they had already lost the series to India by the time they reached Headingley, Root broke free of the rot to set up a consolation win. He scored 113 in an innings where no one else could pass 50, fending off Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and the rest of India’s 2010s A-listers.
13. 107 (104) vs Pakistan, Trent Bridge, 2019
Trent Bridge is England’s white-ball stomping ground, but they came unstuck in the 2019 World Cup against Pakistan. In their second game of the tournament, Root and Jos Buttler anchored a big but gettable by England’s standards chase, but the tail collapsed beneath them to fall 14 runs short, and de-stabalise the pre-tournament script.
12. 121 (108) vs Sri Lanka, Wellington, 2015
One of the bad World Cups. England’s dismal tournament in 2015 provided the foundations for their rebirth under Eoin Morgan. Root showed just how central he would be to the next chapter against Sri Lanka. As the rest fell by the wayside he held firm as a lone figure of resistance, becoming England’s youngest player to score a hundred in a men’s 50-over World Cup.
11. 111 (108) vs Sri Lanka, Colombo, 2026
Another sit-back-and-watch job obscured by fireworks at the other end. This time it was Harry Brook who showed his freakishness after Root had done the groundwork. The importance of Root’s innings shouldn’t be understated next to Brook’s. For the second game in a row, Root held up a lineup consistently ready to collapse. Against an often chaotic lineup, the gap in calibre to Root looks more and more like a chasm.
3rd ODI, Sri Lanka vs England
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10. 109 (124) vs South Africa, Johannesburg, 2016
This one really was a lone effort. England were 108-6 with Root on 38 at one stage. He held what was left of the innings together to post a competitive total, which South Africa only bettered in a last gasp finish.
9. 133* (129) vs Bangladesh, The Oval, 2017
At their first tournament test since the 2015 World Cup, Root ensured England threw off those demons with a dominant start. After coming in during the third over of a 306-run chase, he stayed unflappable until the end while Alex Hales and Eoin Morgan took care of the run-rate, ticking the runs off as he went. The archetypal Root innings, with bonus points for global tournament pressure.
8. 104* (117) vs Sri Lanka, Pallekele, 2014
An unbeaten effort in a chase scores you double points under these rules. Batting at four rather than the three spot he’s made his own, Root came in during the powerplay and stayed until the end, the win sealed with just five balls to spare. It was only his third ODI hundred, but it was the kind you’d expect from a player far more experienced than Root was at the time.
7. 100* (94) vs West Indies, Southampton, 2019
This one mattered, and showed how pressure oozes straight off Root’s bat. It wasn’t a big target, and one England back themselves to chase down easily. In the end, they did, but not without a touch of jeopardy thrown in. They’d already lost to Pakistan, and needed to bank wins to keep their tournament on track. There were also injuries to contend with, and Root was pushed up to open after Jason Roy was injured in the field. He peeled off a classy century with support from Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes pushed up to three, to see them comfortably over what could have been a stumbling block.
6. 120 (111) vs Afghanistan, Lahore, 2025
England’s loss to Afghanistan set them on a disaster path at the 2025 Champions Trophy. Part of their failure rested upon Root’s lack of a decisive contribution, a slump which extended back to immediately after the 2019 World Cup. Those were Root’s barren ODI years, where he hardly played and didn’t deliver the same volume as previously when he did. Even though England lost against Afghanistan, Root’s 120 got them close, even if he couldn’t quite get the job done.
5. 113* (116) vs India, Lord’s, 2018
At a point England were under some pressure for their ultra-aggressive pre-2019 approach, Root stood out among the top-order thrashers of Jonny Bairstow, Roy, Morgan and the rest. But, just like he’s done at other points in his career, he quietly underlined that his superiority comes from who he is at his core, rather than hitting his way through. Just 37 of his 113 runs against India at Lord’s in 2018 came from boundaries, and even as the rest were unable to capitalise on starts, Root’s nudges and hard running meant England were able to post well over 300. His neutralisation of Kuldeep Yadav also stood out. The left-arm wristspinner had run through England in the first ODI and in the preceding short-form stuff. He dismissed the other three in the top four, but not Root.
4. 104 (78) vs New Zealand, Edgbaston, 2015
This was the beginning of England’s all singing, all dancing fire and brimstone revolution. The first ODI of their home series against New Zealand in the 2015 summer, where they passed 400 for the first time and proved they could hang with the big guns. Root also showed he could keep up the pace of the new era, banging 104 off 78 deliveries after coming in on the second ball of the match.
3. 106* (97) vs New Zealand, Trent Bridge, 2015
A second ton from Root in the same series comes in just above the previous entry. Set 350, once again Root was unbeaten in the chase. Playing second fiddle to Morgan’s pyrotechnics, those runs brought England their highest successful chase in ODIs, and were a true marker of just how much their post-World Cup revamp had set them on a dominating course.
2. 100* (120) vs India, Leeds, 2018
As previously stated, an unbeaten score in a chase scores double, but in this case points have been added for the celebration and that Root’s innings stopped India’s juggernaut. In a lot of way it was the perfect innings. He reached his hundred with a boundary off the last ball of the match, celebrated with a very late-2010s style bat drop, and became England’s leading ODI century-maker. It gave England an eighth bilateral series win in a row and halted India’s series-winning streak at nine.
ALSO READ: ODI innings of the year – No.5 – Joe Root & the infamous bat drop
1. 166* (139) vs West Indies, Cardiff, 2025
Cardiff was treated to a monster of a Root innings last summer, one that contained a not-so-quiet message. After the 2023 World Cup fiasco, Root easily could have slipped out of England’s white-ball plans. He didn’t make a single hundred between 2019 and 2025, and with new management comes fresh starts. Having broken his century duck in the Champions Trophy, his Cardiff behemoth was his most freak-like. He hit 23 boundaries after shrugging off the threat of a collapse once again, he whacked 17 off one over to stamp the accelerator, and showed he has more than enough firepower to keep up with his younger teammates. With no guarantees Root would ever reach his pre-2019 peak again, he firmly put those concerns to bed at Sophia Gardens.
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