Joe Root Becomes Test Cricket's All-Time Leading Catcher With 220th Grab at Edgbaston

Joe Root now stands alone at the top of Test cricket's all-time catching charts.

The England captain took his 220th career catch in the third Test against Pakistan at Edgbaston on Thursday, September 10. The catch moved him past Australia's Steve Smith, who had held the record on 219, for most catches by a fielder in Test history.

How it happened

The record-breaking moment came in the opening over of Pakistan's second innings. Ollie Robinson found the edge of Abdullah Shafique's bat with a delivery angled into the fifth-stump channel, and the ball raced low toward first slip. Root bent low to complete the catch and send Shafique back for a three-ball duck. Robinson took his 21st wicket of the three-match series.

The wicket came at a moment when England were already dominant. The hosts had been bowled out for 453 in their first innings, after Pakistan had collapsed for just 133. That gave England a 320-run lead, with Pakistan yet to reach 200 in any innings across the series.

The record's recent back-and-forth

Root's road to the top has been a moving target for weeks. Root first reclaimed the record from Smith during the first Test at Headingley in Leeds on Friday, August 21, when he took a leg-slip catch off Jofra Archer's bowling to dismiss Pakistan opener Azan Awais for nine. That catch brought Root's tally to 219, putting him ahead of Smith's then-mark of 218, which the Australian had reached with three catches in a Test against Bangladesh in Darwin.

Smith had briefly drawn level with Root earlier in their careers, after Root had first passed former India captain Rahul Dravid's mark of 210. Smith then added to his own tally in the weeks after Leeds, pulling back level with Root at 219 apiece before Thursday's Edgbaston catch settled the matter at 220 to 219.

On August 21, Root also equalled Sachin Tendulkar's Test record of 68 half-centuries on the second day of that same Headingley Test, before being dismissed for 66. That fifty moved Root into fifth on the all-time list of 50-plus scores by a Test captain, behind Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, Allan Border and Misbah-ul-Haq.

The current standings

The top of the all-time Test catching list now reads: Joe Root on 220, Steve Smith on 219, Rahul Dravid on 210, Mahela Jayawardene on 205, and Jacques Kallis on 200.

The gap between Root and the next-most-prolific active fielder is now wide enough that no current player is realistically positioned to challenge the mark in the near term, given Root's more than a decade of Test cricket anchored at first slip.

What's next

England's bowlers, led by Robinson's 21 wickets this series, have Pakistan under sustained pressure heading into the remainder of the Edgbaston Test, the third and final match of the series. Pakistan have yet to post a total above 133 in any innings of the series, and their second innings started poorly, with Robinson's early strike accounting for Shafique. Whether Pakistan can avoid a series sweep, and how much further Root extends his new record before the tour ends, remain open questions as the match at Edgbaston continues.