Star English batter Joe Root made history on Wednesday (October 9) by becoming England’s all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket, surpassing the record previously held by Alastair Cook. The 33-year-old right-handed batsman achieved this milestone during his 147th Test match against Pakistan in Multan, scoring a total of 12,473 runs. Cook, who played 161 Tests for England, ended his career with 12,472 runs.
To break Cook’s record, Root needed 71 runs in the first Test, which he accomplished in the first innings itself. Here are the top run scorers for England in Test cricket:
– Joe Root – 12,473*
– Alastair Cook – 12,472
– Graham Gooch – 8,900
– Alec Stewart – 8,463
– David Gower – 8,231
By achieving this feat, Root also climbed to the fifth position on the list of all-time Test run scorers. The overall record is held by Sachin Tendulkar, who amassed 15,921 runs in 200 matches. Other prominent players in the top ranks include Ricky Ponting (13,378), Jacques Kallis (13,289), and Rahul Dravid (13,288).
In addition to this milestone, Root made history on Tuesday by becoming the first player to score 5,000 runs in the World Test Championship (WTC), where he holds records for most runs, matches played, and centuries scored.
Currently ranked No. 1 in the ICC Test batting rankings, Root aims to convert his strong start into a century, which would help him surpass legends like Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene, and Younis Khan to become the sixth player in history to score 35 or more Test centuries. Tendulkar holds the record with 51 Test centuries. A century in the first innings would also mark Root as the only batter in WTC history to score at least 1,500 runs in all three editions of the championship.
