Joe Root becomes all-time great as he smashes Sir Alastair Cook’s England Test record

Joe Root was always going to go down as one of England’s greatest cricketers, but now the statistics say he is the best batter ever.

This is because the elite Yorkshire star has surpassed Sir Alastair Cook to become England’s all-time top Test run-scorer.

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And the way he did it was classic Root as he slammed Aamer Jamal down the ground for a glorious, straight four to move onto 12,473 Test runs.

Root now sits in fifth on the all-time leaderboard, with India’s great Rahul Dravid next in his sights.

Dravid is about a 1,000 runs ahead of Root, but given the form the Yorkshireman is in, you wouldn’t bet against him breaking that within the next year.

Root also passed Cook’s Test run tally of 12,472 in fewer matches and innings.

The former captain and opener hit his score in 161 Tests and 291 innings, while Root managed it in 147, and it happened in 268 innings.

The 33-year-old also has a higher average than Cook at 50.86 as well as a better strike rate 56.95.

But his former teammate does still boast the highest individual score of 291 compared with Root’s 254.

Either way, it’s a stunning achievement from the batter, and he will be forever etched into England cricket history.

His run tally is unlikely to be beaten any time soon, with the only other active England batter anywhere near Ben Stokes on just over 6,500.

Meanwhile, some of the younger players like Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope are in the 2000s, so Root is going to be sitting at the top for a very long time.

He still even has a chance of catching Sachin Tendulkar at the top of the all-time list, with the Indian legend on 15,921 Test runs.

But before all that, he will be looking to help England save this Test in Multan.

In the first of a three-match series in Pakistan, the hosts won the toss on a dead pitch and racked up an impressive score of 556.

England toiled away in the field for a day-and-a-half in tough conditions for little reward, but they were pleased to keep Pakistan to below 600.

But right at the end of the innings, opener Ben Duckett suffered a nasty thumb injury, taking a catch.

This ruled him out of opening for England in their response and stand-in captain Pope stepped up, but he only lasted two balls as he fell to an outstanding catch from Jamal.

This brought Root to the crease with Crawley, and they put on 109.

Unfortunately, Crawley fell for 78, and Root is now in the middle with Duckett, who has been cleared to play.

Duckett has made a quick half-century, and they’ve put on a 100 partnership as he and Root look to get England back into the game.

For now, the Yorkshireman’s focus will be on that, and once the dust settles on this Test, he will no doubt look back at his achievement with great pride.

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