“He’ll Go Miles Past My Record”: Sir Alastair Cook On Joe Root

Joe Root had played an unbeaten knock of 115 runs to help England chase down 277 against New Zealand in the Lord’s Test to go 1-0 up in the three-match series. England were in a spot of bother at 69/4, but Root, Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes fought it out and, in the end, the hosts scripted a five-wicket win. Along the course of his innings, Root brought up the landmark of 10,000 Test runs and he is the joint-youngest with Cook to achieve the milestone.

Cook has now said that Root will go miles past his record and he reserved some high praise for the 31-year-old batter.

“He is a pleasure to watch, the most complete England batsman I have seen. The person who could play the most incredible innings was Kevin Pietersen, but for the most complete batsmen in all three forms, it’s Root. His consistency is incredible,” Cook told BBC.

“Barring injury, he’ll go miles past my record. He is so hard to tie down. I had to grind my way to 30, it always took me what felt like two hours. Because Joe has got so many low-risk scoring options, pretty much through 360 degrees, he will often get to 30 off 40 balls,” he added.

In the all-time leading run-scorers list in Tests, Cook is at the fifth spot with 12,472 runs. Root currently has 10,015 runs.

Sachin Tendulkar tops the list with 15,921 runs.

Root is just the second England batter to register 10,000 Test runs after Alastair Cook.

In the first Test against New Zealand, England were set a target of 277 and the hosts were left in a spot of bother at 69/4 in the 20th over.

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However, Root and Ben Stokes joined forces and the duo put on 90 runs for the fifth wicket. Stokes then lost his wicket after scoring 54 and the match was once again in the balance with England at 159/5.

Wicketkeeper-batter Ben Foakes then came out to the middle and he partnered Root to put together an unbeaten stand of 120 runs for the sixth wicket to take England over the line by five wickets.