Joe Root continued his momentous run in Test cricket as not only went past Sir Alastair Cook to become the leading run-getter in the longest format for England but also surpassed the likes of Brian Lara, Sunil Gavaskar and Mahela Jayawardene to score 35 centuries during his marathon knock against Pakistan in Multan. On a flat wicket, England responded in style to Pakistan's humongous 556, smashing 492 runs in 101 overs and will be keen to get a huge first-innings lead.
After Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett played in their usual rapid style, Joe Root having been back to his old playing style, frustrated Pakistan. Root was cautious and steady and ground out a gritty knock without letting his guard down as he made sure he put those bad balls away and came out trumps with all others playing around him.
Root with his 72nd run on the day not only became England's highest run-getter but also entered the top five in the all-time list of Test batters. Root, who went unbeaten on 176 into the stumps on Day 3, currently has 12,578 runs to his name and is now fifth on the list of leading run-getters.
Root is still about 3,300 runs behind Sachin Tendulkar, who is the highest run-scorer in Test cricket and the way he is treading, converting fifties into 100s in no time, that doesn't seem an impossible task with age in hand for the former England captain. The comparisons between Root and Sachin are really gaining fire as he became England's leading run-getter, his 11-year-old post on Twitter (now X) has gone viral.
"Sachin made his debut for India before I was born. Then played in my test debut #ThankYouSachin," wrote Root after Indian Master Blaster's final international game in Mumbai in 2013. The tweet resurfaced as the fans reckoned that he is now on his way to script history and break the world record.
As for the match, England are still 64 runs behind and would want to overhaul Pakistan's total quickly in the morning session on Day 4 and pile on the maximum lead they can.
