England, playing their 1,082nd Test in history, became the first team to score 5,00,000 runs in the longest format of the game. England achieved the massive milestone during the second day's play in the ongoing Wellington Test against New Zealand. The inventors of the game and the team that plays the most number of Test matches every year has become the first ones to attain the mountain of half a million runs scored with the bat.
Australia are in second place with 429k runs scored with India in third place at 278k runs in Test cricket history. England with their new Bazball approach in conditions good for batting have scored a huge volume of runs in the limited amount of time and overs to bump up their scoring in the last two and a half years since captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum took over the red-ball side in 2022.
The ongoing series in New Zealand has been the prime example of what England can achieve on good batting surfaces, seeming tracks similar to what they get at home as New Zealand lost the first Test by eight wickets and are on the verge of losing another one by a colossal margin with the tourists already ahead by 533 runs by the end of the second day's play.
Most runs scored by teams in Test cricket history
5,00,126 - England (1082 matches, 18,954 innings)
4,29,000 - Australia (868 matches, 15,183 innings)
2,78,751 - India (586 matches, 10,119 innings)
With Joe Root unbeaten on 73 and captain Ben Stokes supporting him with a quickfire 35*, England are likely to declare after the former gets to his much-awaited century since the double ton in the first Test in Multan. Root has surprisingly gone through a quiet period but Harry Brook after a poor tour of Pakistan, has stormed back into it immediately.
The Kiwis require a miracle to save this Test match as unless England declare before that, a lead of 600-plus runs looks certainly possible.
