On Day 3 of the first Test of the series at Multan Cricket Stadium, Joe Root surpassed former opener Alastair Cook to become England's highest run-scorer in Test cricket. In the 42nd over of the innings, Root reached the milestone with a boundary off Pakistan pacer Aamer Jamal.
Cook has scored 12,472 runs from 161 Tests at an average of 45.35. The left-handed batter has 33 centuries and 57 fifties. He retired from Test cricket in 2018.
Root surpassed Cook in his 147th Test (268 innings). He is now the fifth-highest run-scorer in the format. The first spot is occupied by India's Sachin Tendulkar (15,921 runs), Australia's Ricky Ponting (13,378 runs), Jacques Kallis (13,289 runs) and India's Rahul Dravid (13,288 runs).
England dominate first session
At the end of the first session, Root was batting on 72 off 118 balls. On the other end, Ben Duckett scored freely. The opener who couldn't open the innings due to an injury on Day 2 scored 80 runs from 67 balls in the first session. England had 232/2 from 45 overs at lunch break, trailing by 324 runs. England lost the wicket of Zak Crawley in the opening session of Day 3. He was dismissed by Shaheen Afridi.
Another record for Root
Earlier, on Day 2, Root scripted history as he became the first batter to score 5,000 runs in World Test Championship (WTC) history. Before the Multan Test, he needed just 27 runs to reach the milestone. Root is way ahead of others. No batter has even 4,000 runs in WTC yet. The closest is Marnus Labuschagne (3,904 runs in 45 Tests) followed by Steve Smith (3,486 runs in 45 Tests), Ben Stokes (3,191 runs in 48 Tests).
Root still behind Cook on another list
Root also surpassed David Gower on the list of England batters with most runs against Pakistan. Gower has 1,185 runs from 17 Tests against Pakistan. The 33-year-old surpassed Gower in his 16th Test against Pakistan. The top spot belongs to Cook with 1,719 runs from 20 Tests.
