The records keep coming for Joe Root in the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar trophy. At Lord's last week, the talismanic England batter had notched up his 37th Test ton, which moved him past Rahul Dravid and Steve Smith in the list of most career hundreds in the longest format. Root currently sits at fifth spot in that list with only Kumar Sangakkara (38), Ricky Ponting (41), Jacques Kallis (45) and Sachin Tendulkar (51) ahead of him in that order.
On Friday (July 25), Root made major inroads into another historical list in Test cricket. During the morning session of the third day against India in Manchester, Root when on 31*, got to 13290* career runs, overtaking Kallis and Dravid, both of whom ended their careers with 13289 runs in Tests. It moved Root to third spot in the all-time highest run scorers list in Tests, only behind Ponting (13378) and Tendulkar (15921) in the list.
England Cricket on X fittingly put out a multimedia post of tribute to arguably their greatest Test batter of all time.
"Skipping up to third on the all-time list...Just GOAT things 🐐" read the post with a video of Root getting to the coveted milestone.
With the third day being the best day to bat at Old Trafford, Root is in with a solid chance of overtaking Ponting in this inning itself, if not later in the game when England bat last. Meanwhile, Root has 103 fifties in Tests, level with Ponting and Kallis with Tendulkar once again topping the list with 119. However, fifties aren't a major milestone in Tests although they are obviously a valuable contribution to the team's cause. Therefore, even if Root gets past 50 in the ongoing innings on the third day, he'd want to convert that to another three-figure knock which would put him level with Sangakkara in the all-time centuries list.
Root's historic moment has been the cherry on top for England who have endured a solid start to the third day, as his partnership with Ollie Pope continued to extend England's dominance in the game.
