Centurion Joe Root nears 20,000 international runs, breaks several records
England's star batter Joe Root is on the cusp of a massive international cricket milestone. After the third day of the first Test against Pakistan in Multan, he is just seven runs away from becoming the first English player to score 20,000 runs across all formats. Root ended the day with a brilliant 176* off 277 deliveries, including 12 boundaries. Here's more.
Root's remarkable international career
Root has scored 19,993 runs in 350 international matches, averaging 49.12. The prolific career of Root includes 51 centuries and 108 half-centuries. In the ongoing Test series against Pakistan, he has already gone past former England captain Alastair Cook's record to become England's highest run-scorer in Test cricket and the fifth-highest globally.
Root's Test cricket achievements
In his 147th Test, Root has scored 12,578 runs at an average of 51.33. This includes 35 centuries and 64 fifties, leaving Cook's 12,472 runs from 161 Tests behind. Root has also left cricket legends like Younis Khan (Pakistan), Sunil Gavaskar (India), Brian Lara (West Indies) and Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) who had scored 34 Test centuries each, behind.
Root sets new record in ICC World Test Championship
Notably, Root has set yet another record by becoming the first player to score 5,000 runs in the ICC World Test Championship since its inception in 2019. He has scored 5,149 runs at an average of 53.08, including 17 centuries and 20 fifties, in this competition alone. Currently, he is the leading run-scorer of the ongoing ICC World Test Championship (2023-25) cycle with 1,574 runs from just 17 Tests.
