Joe Root, the star English batter who is currently the number one in the ICC Test batter ranking on a Sunday (September 8), also became the sixth top run-scorer for Test cricket surpassing former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara. The 33-year-old Root exceeded Sangakkara’s figures of 12,400 runs crossing the 11-run mark in his second innings of the ongoing third Test against Sri Lanka at the Oval.
Sangakkara wrapped up his 15-year-long Test career with 12,400 runs out of 134 matches he played for Sri Lanka whereas now Root has scored 12,402 (in 267 innings) from a total of 146 Tests played by him.
The record for most runs scored by a player in Tests is held by Sachin Tendulkar whereas regarding total runs he ended his career at that time had only about 15,921 attained during 200 tests played by him; Ricky Ponting took second place (13,378 runs); Jacques Kallis came next from South Africa (13,289), followed by Rahul Dravid from India (13,288) and lastly Alastair Cook who hails from England had 12,472
Most runs in Tests
Sachin Tendulkar (India) – 15,921
Ricky Ponting (Australia) – 13,378
Jacques Kallis (South Africa) – 13,289
Rahul Dravid (India) – 13,288
Alastair Cook (England) – 12,472
Joe Root (England) – 12,402*
Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) – 12,400.
Now that he has surpassed Sangakkara’s mark, Root longed to create a new record by becoming the first batsman ever to reach 5000 runs in the history of World Test Championship. The previous captain of England needs just 27 more runs to reach the milestone.
If Root manages to score at least 83 runs in this inning, he will hit Cook’s record and become the all-time leading run scorer for England in tests.
.A second innings century in this ongoing Test will make Root become number six on the list of Test batsmen who have made most centuries ever.
The record for scoring most Test centuries is also held by Tendulkar who achieved it 51 times throughout his career. South Africa’s Kallis scored 45 centuries out of 166 matches while Ponting smashed 41 centuries during his 161 red ball games for Baggy Greens. Sangakkara has a total of 38 Test centuries whereas Dravid is in fifth place with 36 hundreds having played 164 Tests for India.
The last Test played at Lord’s saw Root surpassing Cook’s mark of 33 century scores by making two centuries on that day.
