New Delhi: English batter Joe Root has yet again stealthily sneaked into the record books of cricket as he leapfrogged the record of Sir Alastair Cook to become the leading run-getter for England in Test Cricket for England.
Joe Root needs another 39 runs to overtake Sir Alastair Cook as England’s leading Test match run scorer.
Will he do it this morning?
We’re LIVE from Multan for Day 3 of #PAKvENG. Plenty of ways to listen. 👇 pic.twitter.com/pH4hMZSGf7
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) October 9, 2024
Root currently batting on 72 (118) achieved the remarkable feat of surpassing the record of Alastair Cook (12472 runs) in the ongoing England vs Pakistan Test series. The English Batter is the key for England to win the ongoing Test match against Pakistan in Multan.
In the process, Root also entered an elite list of batters who have scored the maximum runs in Test Cricket history. The list has big names like
Top 5 run-getters in Test Cricket
- Sachin Tendulkar (15921 runs)
- Ricky Ponting (13378 runs)
- Jacques Kallis (13289 runs)
- Rahul Dravid (13288 runs)
- Joe Root (12473 runs)
Meanwhile. Root has broken other records in the day as well. The former England captain recently became the first player to score 5000 runs in the ICC World Test Championship. Besides Root, Marnus Labuschange is the second batter on the list with 3904 runs while Australia’s Steeve Smith occupies the third spot with 3484 runs.
Furthermore, he has also become the first player to score 1000 Test runs in the 2024 calendar year.
Fab 4 or Fab 2?
While Root has found the perfect sync in the red ball as well as Steve Smith, India’s Virat Kohli and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson are finding it a real challenge to keep up with the pace of both Root and Smith.
Interestingly, as of October 2024, Kane Williamson has scored 2,212 runs in the World Test Championship (WTC). Meanwhile, Virat Kohli has scored 2,470 runs in the World Test Championship (WTC). Root, Williamson, Smith and Kohli formed the famous ‘FAB 4’ due to their batting prowess for their respective teams, however, in recent times Kohli and Williamson have both looked off-colour and out of touch.
Although there is a lot of cricket left in Kohli and Williamson, the real question is- has the FAB 4 broken down to only FAB 2?
Top run-getters for England in Test Cricket
| Player | Matches | Runs | Average | Highest | Centuries | Fifties |
| Joe Root | 147* | 12473* | 50.85 | 254 | 34 | 65 |
| Alastair Cook | 161 | 12472 | 45.35 | 294 | 33 | 57 |
| Graham Gooch | 118 | 8900 | 42.58 | 333 | 20 | 46 |
| Alec Stewart | 133 | 8463 | 39.54 | 190 | 15 | 45 |
| David Gower | 117 | 8231 | 44.25 | 215 | 18 | 39 |
| Kevin Pietersen | 104 | 8181 | 47.28 | 227 | 23 | 35 |