New Delhi: England batter Joe Root on Saturday (July 27) completed 12,000 Test runs in the ongoing third Test match between England and West Indies played at Edgbaston in Birmingham. The Yorkshire player also superseded West Indies batting legend Brian Lara’s Test tally to become the seventh highest run-getter in the Test format.
Root resurrected England’s innings with skipper Ben Stokes after the hosts crumbled at 54 for 5 at one stage in the innings courtesy of Jayden Seales’ stupendous spell. The senior English duo added 115 runs for the sixth wicket before Stokes perished to an Alzarri Joseph bumper just after the lunch.
Root consolidated England’s one end and continued to score the runs efficiently en route to his 63rd Test fifty. A pull off Joseph’s length ball in the 34th over fetched boundary for the England No.5. This marked his accomplishment of 12,000 Test runs, making him the seventh batter in the history to reach the milestone.
He went past Lara’s Test runs of 11,953 when he just completed 20 runs earlier in the morning session.
🚨 1️⃣2️⃣,0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ 🚨
We are witnessing GREATNESS! 🐐 pic.twitter.com/OLuS4GKn2H
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 27, 2024
Joe Root eyes Alastair Cook’s mark
Joe Root is now only behind his predecessor, Sir Alastair Cook, in England’s list of most run-scorers in Test cricket. Cook retired from the traditional format in 2018 after scoring 12,472 runs in 161 matches at an average of 45.35 with 57 half-centuries and 33 Test hundreds.
The 33-year-old Root has the time to go after all the records set by the Essex player. With his 32nd Test hundred leading England’s fightback in Nottingham, Root is just one ton shy of leveling Cook’s 33 Test centuries. Cook has the most Test hundreds by any England batter in their rich history of Tests but Root needs just two more of them to etch that record to his name.
Root has also the joint-most hundreds by active Test cricketers, joining the likes of Steve Smith and Kane Williamson (all three of them tied at 32).
England batter Joe Root on Saturday (July 27) completed 12,000 Test runs in the ongoing third Test match between England and West Indies played at Edgbaston in Birmingham. The Yorkshire player also superseded West Indies batting legend Brian Lara’s Test tally to become the seventh highest run-getter in the Test format. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
