New Delhi: England’s Test team captain Alastair Cook today surpassed legendary Sachin Tendulkar to become the youngest cricketer ever to reach the 10,000-run landmark in Test cricket.
Cook also became the first English player ever to make 10,000 runs in Test cricket.
Aged 31 years, five months and five days, Cook broke Tendulkar’s record who was 31 years, ten months and twenty days old when he reached the coveted landmark in 2005.
Before the ongoing second Test match against Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street, Alastair was just 20 runs away from becoming the first Englishman to join the 10,000-run club.
Cook missed the record by five runs as he was dismissed for 15 in the first innings. He finally reached the landmark in the post-lunch session in the second over of England’s second innings.
Alastair Cook is the twelfth batsman to make 10,000 runs in Test cricket. Other batsmen to reach the landmark, after Tendulkar, are Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, Mahela Jayawardene, Allan Border, Jacques Kallis, Steve Waugh and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
However, in terms of innings taken to reach the 10,000-run landmark, Sachin Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara and Brian Lara have taken only 195 innings each, whereas Alastair Cook took 229 innings to join the 10,000-run club.
Cook made his test debut against India in 2006 and smashed a century in the very first match. With his ability to score runs in big matches, he guided his team to their first Ashes win in Australia in 2011. The stylish left-handed batsman scored 766 runs in seven innings in that series.
