England Test captain Joe Root became the eighth batter in international cricket history to score 23,000 runs. Root achieved the feat in the ongoing ODI series opener against Sri Lanka at Riverside Ground, Chester-Le-Street. Root achieved the feat in the 394th match of his international cricket career.
Root missed a chance to score his 48th ODI half-century. After two early wickets, Root scored 44 runs from 52 balls including five fours. He was knocked over by debutant Sachindu Colombage.
Here is a list of batters with 23,000 or more runs in international cricket -
Sachin Tendulkar (India) - 34,357 runs from 664 matches
Virat Kohli (India) - 28,359 runs from 562 matches
Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) - 28,106 runs from 594 matches
Ricky Ponting (Australia) - 27,483 runs from 560 matches
Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) - 25,957 runs from 652 matches
Jacques Kallis (South Africa) - 25,534 runs from 519 matches
Rahul Dravid (India) - 24,208 runs from 509 matches
In the top eight highest run-scorer in international cricket, Kohli is the only batter apart from Root. But, Kohli is only playing the ODI format having retired from the other two.
Root way ahead of next England batter on list
The next England batter on the list of most runs in international cricket is former opener Alastair Cook. The former opener has 15,737 runs from 257 matches. It included 12,472 runs in the Test format alone and less than 100 runs in T20Is.
Root in a league of his own despite T20I hiatus
Root has 14,278 runs in Test cricket. He is nearing 8,000 runs in ODIs. If he achieves the feat in the ongoing ODI series against Sri Lanka, he will be 34th batter to do it.
However, he has been out-of-favour in the T20I format. He hasn't played a T20I in more than seven years and isn't a prominent name in T20 franchise cricket either. From 32 T20Is, he has 893 runs.