Star England batter Joe Root, who sits at No. 1 position in the ICC Test rankings, created history on Tuesday (October 8) by becoming the first batter in the world to score 5000 runs in the World Test Championship (WTC). The 33-year-old right-handed batter achieved the feat during the final session of the 2nd day’s play of the ongoing first Test between Pakistan and England at Multan Cricket Stadium. Root finished the second day with an individual score of 32 runs from 54 balls and has hammered two fours so far during his stay at the crease.
Root needed 27 runs to cross the 5000-run mark in the Pakistan-England Test series, and he achieved the feat in the first match itself. He now has 5005 runs to his name in 59 matches played so far. Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne is in second place with 3904 runs in 45 WTC matches and is followed by countryman Steve Smith, who has scored 3486 runs in 45 matches.
Most runs in WTC
- Joe Root (England) – 5005*
- Marnus Labuschagne (Australia) – 3904
- Steve Smith (Australia) – 3486
- Ben Stokes (England) – 3101
- Babar Azam (Pakistan) – 2755
Root, who is the all-time leading run scorer in WTC history, has 12,434 runs to his name in Test cricket, and if he manages to score at least 39 runs more in the first innings of the ongoing 1st Test against Pakistan, then he will break Alastair Cook’s record and become the all-time leading run scorer for England in Test cricket.
Former England skipper Cook finished his Test career with 12,472 runs in 161 matches for England from 2006 to 2018.
A century in the ongoing Test will also help Root overtake Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene, and Younis Khan and become the sixth batter in the world to score 35 or more Test centuries. Sachin Tendulkar holds the record for scoring most 100s in Tests (51 in 200 matches), and he is followed by Jacques Kallis (45), Ricky Ponting (41), Kumar Sangakkara (38) and Rahul Dravid (36).
A total of 102 runs in the series opener at Multan Cricket Stadium will also help the former England captain to become the first batter in the world to score at least 1500 runs in all three editions of the World Test Championship.
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