Joe Root about to join an exclusive ton-up Test club featuring NINE former Hampshire players

He will also become the 69th player from all the Test-playing nations to reach the three-figure appearance milestone.

Colin Cowdrey became the first in 1968, while Australian batsman Allan Border was the first to 150 in December 1993. Only eight men have subsequently emulated Border, with Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar becoming the first - and so far only - player to appear in 200 Test matches in 2013.

Of the 68 men who have made 100 Test appearances, nine have played for Hampshire. Some might be obvious, but others less so.

Here, The News looks at the careers - in the Test arena as well as for Hampshire - of those three Australians, two Englishmen, one Pakistani, one West Indian, one South African and one Sri Lankan. They appear in order of how many Test appearances they made.

Shane Warne

No player who has ever turned out for Hampshire has won more Test caps than the legendary Australian leg-spinner.

Warne made 145 Test appearances, bagging 708 wickets at 25.41 - the second highest total in history behind Muttiah Muralitharan who took 800 wickets in 23 fewer Tests.

Having made his Test debut in early 1992, Warne’s first taste of English county cricket was in 2000. He bagged 70 Championship wickets at 23.14, with only one bowler taking more - his fellow Australian legend Glenn McGrath (76 for Worcestershire).

After missing the 2003 season due to a suspension for taking a banned diuretic, Warne returned to skipper Hampshire in the next four seasons - though he missed a large chunk of 2005 on Ashes duty.

In all, took 246 first class wickets for the county.

Warne’s last Test came in January 2007 at Sydney, where Australia completed a 5-0 Ashes whitewash. It was also the Test farewell for Justin Langer and McGrath.

Unlike McGrath, who never played a first class game again, Warne continued to turn out for Hampshire.

His final first class appearance was anti-climatic, rain washing out the final two days of a Championship game at Headingley in September 2007 with Warne only bowling two overs in the game.

Hashim Amla

The South African was 35 when he enjoyed a five-match Championship stint with Hampshire at the start of the 2018 season. Having made his debut in 2004, he had already appeared in 117 Tests - after playing for Hampshire, he was to play just seven more.

His two Championship tons for Hampshire - as well as three half-centuries from only nine innings, averaging 54.66 overall - were to be the last of his 52 first-class centuries.

David Gower

Far better known for his time at Leicestershire, Gower nonetheless was a Hampshire player when winning the final 11 of his 117 Test caps between 1990-92.

Of his 18 Test centuries, the last three came during his time on the south coast.

The stylish left-hander remains the fifth highest England Test run scorer of all-time with 8,231 at 44.25 - Root having overtaken him last month.

Michael Clarke

The batsman, then 23, joined fellow Aussie Shane Warne at The Ageas Bowl for the 2004 season, scoring 709 Championship runs at 35.45.

Clarke was handed the first of his 115 Test caps the following October, and went on to compile 8,643 runs at 49.10. He scored more Test hundreds (28) than half-centuries (27).

Three of Clarke’s hundreds were double tons and one was a triple century - his 329 not out against India in January 2012. That was the start of a stellar 12 months, which also saw innings of 210 (v India), 259 not out (v South Africa), 230 (v South Africa) snd 106 (v South Africa).

Clarke’s Test farewell was when he skippered Australia to an innings victory in the final Ashes Test at The Oval in 2015.

Chaminda Vaas

Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas took 355 wickets in 111 Tests for Sri Lanka between 1994 and 2009. He remains the third highest wicket-taker in his country’s Test history.

A late-season signing in 2003, after Wasim Akram had quit, the left-arm seamer played just three Championship matches and three one-day games for Hampshire.

Gordon Greenidge

A Hampshire legend, the opening batsman played 108 Tests for the West Indies - 31 of them after surprisingly not being offered another County Ground contract in 1988.

Greenidge made his Hampshire debut in 1970, four years before his Test debut, and all but six of his 19 Test centuries were during his Hampshire career

Highlights included his two centuries in the 1976 Test at Old Trafford - his first innings 134 was made out of a team total of 211 - and his brutal unbeaten 214 on the final day to win the Lord’s Test in 1984 after England skipper David Gower had declared.

Greenidge remains the fifth highest West Indies Test scorer with 7,558 at 44.72.

Kevin Pietersen

The larger-than-life Pietersen made his Test debut a few months into his debut Hampshire season in 2005, after having left Nottinghamshire the previous winter.

He played the first six Championship games of 2005 before being called up for the first Test of what was to go down in history as one of the greatest Ashes series.

After his Test debut, until his departure five years later, Pietersen only played one more Championship game for Hampshire - against Somerset at Taunton in May 2008 (during which he scored a century).

After that, his next Championship outing was for Surrey in September 2010.

He scored 8,181 Test runs - the sixth highest in England’s history - in 104 Tests, the last 38 of which came during his time at Surrey - initially on loan in September 2010 and then on a permanent deal.

Pietersen scored 23 Test centuries for England, all but seven of them during his time at The Ageas Bowl.

Many were magnificent, but none remain in the memory more than his maiden Test ton - at the Oval in September 2005 which enabled England to regain the Ashes for the first time in 18 years.

Wasim Akram

The Pakistan legend had already played the last of his 104 Test matches when he arrived at The Ageas Bowl on a one-year contract in 2003.

But the veteran all-rounder - he celebrated his 37th birthday during his time on the south coast - only played five Championship games before asking to be released from his contract citing exhaustion.

Akram, whose 414 wickets is a Test best for his country, never played first class cricket again.

Matthew Hayden

The Australian was a smash hit in his sole season at Hampshire in 1997, hitting 1,438 Championship runs at 57.52.

Playing against Warwickshire in May, he followed up an unbeaten 235 in the first innings – during which he shared an unbroken seventh wicket stand of 215 with Shaun Udal (117 no, his only ever century) - with 119 in the second. That match haul of 354 runs remains a Hampshire first class record.

Hayden had arrived in England with seven Test appearances to his name. He would have to wait until 2000 for his eighth, but after that never looked back.

He was to end with 8,625 runs at 50.73 from 103 Tests and, like Clarke, scored more tons (30) than half-centuries (29).

Hayden struck six Test tons in 2002 and five in 2003, including 380 against Zimbabwe in November which at the time set a new Test record until Brian Lara surpassed it the following April. Hayden’s innings remains the highest Test score by an opening batsman.