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).

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