Joe Root is on fire for England in the ongoing fourth Test against India at Old Trafford in Manchester. After coming out to bat at No. 4 for the Ben Stokes-led side, the right-handed batter from Yorkshire first leapfrogged Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis to become the third leading run scorer in Test cricket, and then, in the second session of the third day’s play, went past Ricky Ponting’s tally of 13,378 runs to become the second-highest run scorer in the five-day format of the game.
Ponting played 168 Tests for Australia from 1995 to 2012 and amassed a total of 13,378 runs, whereas Root now has 13,279 runs to his name in 157 games for England.
Root needed 120 runs in the Manchester Test to go past Ponting’s tally.
Now, only batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has scored more runs in Tests than Root. The former played 200 Tests for India from 1989 to 2013 and scored 15,921 runs with the help of 51 hundreds and 68 half-centuries.
Apart from becoming the second leading run getter in Tests, Root has broken several other records in the ongoing game.
The hundred by Root in Manchester is his 12th Test 100 against India and overall 38th for England. Root now tops the list of batters with the most Test hundreds against India.
And in the overall list of batters, Root now moves to the No. 4 position. Former Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara scored 38 hundreds in Tests as well. The latter played 134 Tests from 2000 to 2015 for Sri Lanka and scored 12,400 runs with the help of 38 hundreds.
Root overall has 104 50+ scores to his name in Tests now, which is only second to Tendulkar’s tally of 119.
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