Joe Root Breaks Alastair Cook's Record Of Most Runs For England In...

Star English batter Joe Root is in red-hot form these days. He equalled former skipper Alastair Cook’s record of most Test 100s for England in the first innings of the ongoing 2nd Test against Sri Lanka at the Lord’s, and in the second innings on Saturday (August 31), he broke his record of most runs for England in the red-ball format of the game against Sri Lanka.

Cook, who played in 16 Tests against Sri Lanka, scored 1290 runs, and by crossing the 43-run mark on Saturday, Root now has 1291 runs to his name.

The overall record of scoring most runs in Tests played between England and Sri Lanka is held by former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene. In 23 matches against the Poms, he scored 2212 runs. Kumar Sangakkara is second on the list with 1568 runs in 22 Tests, and Root has moved to No. 3 position now.

Most runs in England-Sri Lanka Tests

• Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) – 2212
• Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) – 1568
• Joe Root (England) – 1293*
• Alastair Cook (England) – 1290
• Angelo Matthews (Sri Lanka) – 1057*

England lead by 390 runs

The hosts, who dismissed Sri Lanka for 196 runs in the first inning, have stretched their overall lead to 390 runs at the time of lunch on Day 3. Root was batting on 45 runs from 58 balls, and wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith was unbeaten on 23.

Root has 12,319 runs to his name in Test cricket so far, and if he manages to add 82 runs more to his tally, then he will break Sangakkara’s record of 12,400 runs in Tests and become the sixth leading run scorer in the five-day format of the game.

The century in the second innings of the Lord’s Test will also help him break Cook’s record of 33 hundreds for England in Tests and former England captains Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan’s record of six centuries each at the Home of Cricket.

If Root manages to add at least 110 runs more to his tally in the Lord’s Test, then the 33-year-old right-handed batter, who also served as England’s Test captain in the past, will become the first batter in the World Test Championship (WTC) history to score 5000 runs.