Joe Root reaches 10,000 Test runs

• Joe Root becomes the second England hitter to reach 10,000 runs.
• He attained the milestone in the first Test against NZ.
• Sir Alastair Cook is the only other player to achieve the feat.

Joe Root has become the second England hitter to reach the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket.

Root attained the milestone on the fourth day of the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s, when he scored a century.

He is the 14th player to accomplish the record, with Sir Alastair Cook, England’s former captain, being the only other player to do so.

Root, who is 31 years and 157 days old, has hit 10,000 runs at the same age as Cook, making them the joint-youngest players to do so.

“I just love batting, I want to score as many runs as I can for the group, and it’s wonderful to do that at the start of the summer,” former skipper Root told.

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“It’s an honour to be mentioned in the same breath as England’s greatest ever batter, Alastair Cook.”

Other hitters to attain the milestone include Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Kumar Sangakkara, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Mahela Jayawardene, Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Sunil Gavaskar, and Younis Khan.

“I’m so delighted I was here to see that – a great knock by an unbelievable player,” Cook added.

“In every way, he is the most complete England batsman.”

Despite England’s other hitters’ problems, Root amassed 1,708 Test runs last year, the third-best total in history.

He has 26 Test hundreds to his credit, second only to Cook’s 33 for England.

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In terms of innings, Lara, Tendulkar, and Sangakkara are tied for the quickest to 10,000 Test runs, each taking 195 runs to reach the milestone, while Lara is the quickest in terms of matches, having reached the milestone in his 111th Test.

Root took 218 innings to reach the achievement, compared to 229 for Cook, but he is the only batter to do so less than ten years after his debut – this is his 118th Test since his debut against India in 2012.