In recent times, Joe Root’s name and record have become synonymous with each other. This time, this experienced England star has set a new world record. England is playing a one-match Test series against Zimbabwe after 22 years. There, the English are taking the Rhodesian bowlers by storm. However, Root’s innings is nothing compared to that, he was dismissed for a personal 34 runs. However, he has set the milestone of being the fastest to reach 13,000 runs.
The Test match that started in Nottingham yesterday is Root’s 153rd in white. Before coming to the crease today, the 34-year-old batsman needed just 28 runs to complete his personal 13,000 runs in Tests. Root reached the milestone with a single run in the 80th over of the innings. Through this, he surpassed Jacques Kallis, who holds the record for the fastest 13,000 runs in Tests in terms of matches.
The South African legend entered the 13,000-run club in Tests in his 159th match. Root has registered his name in this elite club by playing 6 matches less than him. In terms of matches, the next in the list of people to achieve this feat with the red ball are Indian legend Rahul Dravid (160), Australia’s Ricky Ponting (162) and Sachin Tendulkar (163). However, Root is far behind in terms of innings. Indian master blaster Sachin has completed 13,000 runs in Tests in the fewest innings. At that time, his innings tally was 266.
The next names on this list are Jacques Kallis (269), Ricky Ponting (275), Rahul Dravid (277) and Joe Root (279). All in all, Root has entered the 13,000-run club as the fifth fastest batsman in terms of innings. He is currently ranked fifth among the highest run-scorers in Tests. His innings against Zimbabwe was not too long either. Root was caught out by Richard Ngaravar after making 34 runs off 44 balls.
He is the first England batsman and the fifth in world cricket overall to enter this elite club of Tests. The former England captain made his Test debut 13 years ago, on December 13, 2012. Root has already written his name in the history of the greatest batsmen of all time in white. He has scored more than 2000 runs in Tests against superpowers like Australia and India and at least 1000 runs against New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.
Incidentally, England have built a mountain of runs at the end of the first day against Zimbabwe. Playing their familiar baseball cricket, they have scored runs in 88 overs at an average of 5.66. At the end of the day, the English have accumulated 498 runs for 3 wickets. Three have scored centuries. Although the two openers Jack Crowley and Ben Duckett have been dismissed for 124 and 140 runs, Ollie Pope is unbeaten on 169 runs.
