En route his 62-run knock against Australia in the second Ashes Test on Saturday, England captain and modern-day great Joe Root achieved another milestone on Saturday when he surpassed Indian batting legends Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar in the list of most Test runs in a calendar year.
The 30-year-old English Test skipper has now 1563 runs in the year, which is a run more than Tendulkar's run-haul of 1562 in 2010. Gavaskar, on the other hand, scored 1555 runs back in 1979. With an innings left in Adelaide and two possible innings in the third Test in the year for Root, he has Australian captain Michael Clarke (1595 runs in 2012) and Graeme Smith (1656) runs surpass immediately in the all-time list.
Former Pakistan batter Mohammad Yousuf, who made a jaw-dropping 1788 in just 11 Tests in 2006 at an average of 99.33, followed by West Indies legend Viv Richards, who scored 1710 runs in 11 Tests, currently hold the top two spots.
In the first Ashes Test at Brisbane, Root had established the England record for most runs in the calendar year in Test cricket, surpassing Michael Vaughan's record in 2002, when he amassed 1481 runs at an average of 61.70.