The right-handed batter achieved the milestone in England’s second Test of the three-match home series against Sri Lanka at Lord’s.
The 33-year-old, who has been in remarkable form, walked out to bat at No.4 with England 42/2 and anchored the innings with a mesmerizing knock.
He put together important partnerships with Harry Brook and Jamie Smith, who made notable contributions with 33 and 21 respectively.
Enjoying his purple patch in the longest format, Root gave only a half-a-chance to Sri Lanka when Milan Rathnayake’s delivery evaded past his stumps after brushing inside half of the bat.
With his 33rd Test century, Joe Root has now equaled Alastair Cook’s long-standing record of scoring the most number of tons for England.
Notably, no active player has as many hundreds as Root.
The former England captain also joined an elusive list of batters to score the most number of centuries in the history of Test cricket, becoming joint-tenth in the list, led by Sachin Tendulkar.
Joe Root is now only one century behind Pakistan’s legendary batter Younis Khan and West Indian batting great Brian Lara.
However, he needs 19 more centuries to replace Tendulkar as the batter with the most number of Test centuries.
Most Test hundreds
Sachin Tendulkar: 51
Jacques Kallis: 45
Ricky Ponting: 41
Kumar Sangakkara: 38
Rahul Dravid: 36
Sunil Gavaskar: 34
Mahela Jayawardene: 34
Brian Lara: 34
Younis Khan: 34
Alastair Cook: 33
Joe Root: 33
Root, who recently amassed 12,000 runs in Test cricket to become the seventh-highest run-scorer of all time, has second-placed Ponting and Tendulkar’s overall record within sight.