Alastair Cook became the first England batsman to score 10,000 Test runs when he made five against Sri Lanka on the fourth day of the second Test at the Riverside on Friday.
He was also the youngest to do so at 31 years and 157 days old, beating the previous record of India’s batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar (31 years and 326 days).
The England captain became just the 12th batsman — and the only one still playing Tests — in history to reach the landmark when the left-handed opener clipped Nuwan Pradeep for four through mid-wicket.
This was Cook’s 128th Test and 229th innings at this level.
The Essex batsman scored a hundred on debut against India at Nagpur in 2006 and has now made 28 Test centuries.
At 31, Cook could have several more years as an international cricketer left in him, but whether he will break Tendulkar’s all time aggregate Test record of 15,921 runs made in 200 Tests remains to be seen.
List of players who have scored 10,000 Test runs:
- Sachin Tendulkar (India) – 15,921
- Ricky Ponting (Australia) – 13,378
- Jacques Kallis (South Africa)- 13,289
- Rahul Dravid (India) – 13,288
- Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) – 12,400
- Brian Lara (West Indies) – 11,953
- Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies) – 11,867
- Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) – 11,814
- Allan Border (Australia) – 11,174
- Steve Waugh (Australia) – 10,927
- Sunil Gavaskar (India) – 10,122
- Alastair Cook (England) – 10,042