England Test captain Joe Root poked fun at his well-documented struggles in converting half-centuries into centuries on Twitter today.

In lieu of any live cricket taking place, with England’s tour of Sri Lanka one of numerous events cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Sky Sports statistician Benedict Bermange has been staging a virtual Test to pass the time.

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‘Day Two’ was a successful one for England and Root, with the captain’s overnight 69 leading his side to 217-3 in reply to Sri Lanka’s 277, but the right-hander wasn’t happy with his own efforts, jokingly criticising his conversion rate struggles, which have been a hot topic for discussion during the latter stages of his Test career. “Odds on Root getting out in the 70s,” he tweeted, in reply to a tweet from Bermange.

Odds on Root getting out in the 70’s…… — Joe Root (@root66) March 20, 2020

Root has converted 17 of his 65 50-plus scores into hundreds, with his rate of 26.1 per cent paling in comparison to the likes of Steve Smith (47.3 per cent) and Virat Kohli (55 per cent).

Elsewhere, Joe Denly made a valuable start but got out before reaching his half-century, while Ben Stokes went to stumps 38 not out.