1 - England batsman who has reached 8000 Test runs in fewer innings than Joe Root's 178: Kevin Pietersen got there in 176. Four other England batsmen reached the mark in fewer than 200 innings. In all, 19 batsmen have made it to 8000 runs in fewer than 178 innings, of which Kumar Sangakkara's 152 is the lowest.
7 - England batsmen with 8000-plus Test runs. Among these players, Root's average of 49.09 is the best, while Alec Stewart's 39.54 is the lowest.
5 - Double-centuries by England batsmen in Asia. Root's 228 is the second-highest among them, after Alastair Cook's 263 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in 2015. Mike Gatting and Graeme Fowler scored their double-hundreds in the same innings, against India in Chennai in 1985.
4 - England captains who have scored double-hundreds in an away Test (including neutral venues); the others are Cook, Len Hutton and Ted Dexter. Root is the only England captain to achieve it twice: he also scored 226 against New Zealand in Hamilton in 2019. Among all captains, only Graeme Smith (four) and Stephen Fleming (three) have more than two double-hundreds as captain in away Tests.
3.65 - England's run-rate in their last seven innings in Sri Lanka, since the start of the 2018 series. Their run-rate in the first innings here was 3.59. Before 2018, their scoring rate here was 2.58.
7 - Instances of Sri Lanka conceding a first-innings lead of more than 250 in a home Test. They have lost each of the six previous matches. The last time they batted first in a home Test and fell behind more than 250 was way back in 2000, against Pakistan also in Galle. Three of the seven instances were in one series, against India in 2017; each time India batted first and piled up huge totals.