England captain Joe Root exceeds career Test runs tallies of former champions Garry Sobers, Mark Waugh in giant Sri Lankan innings
England skipper Joe Root surpassed the career Test runs totals of legendary West Indian all-rounder Garry Sobers and Australian great Mark Waugh in his innings of 228 against Sri Lanka.
And the textbook right-hander now has a quartet of former England champions in his short-term sights: Geoff Boycott, Kevin Pietersen, David Gower and Alec Stewart.
Root’s career Test runs tally climbed to 8051 as he wore down Sri Lanka’s bowling unit in the first Test in Galle, pushing ahead of Waugh’s 8029 and Sobers’ 8032 as he peeled off the fourth double ton of his Test career.
Not only is the 30-year-old now the seventh-highest Test run-scorer in England history, the four batsmen immediately ahead of him on the world-wide leaderboard are countrymen Boycott (8114), Pietersen (8181), Gower (8231) and Stewart (8463).
Alastair Cook (12472) and Graham Gooch (8900) are the only other England batsmen ahead of Root, and although the captain is highly unlikely to conquer Cook’s almighty mountain of runs, he’s all but certain to exceed Gooch’s mark.
In another fascinating statistic surrounding Root’s Galle knock, just two opposition men have registered a higher Test score than Root’s 228 in Sri Lanka: bludgeoning West Indian Chris Gayle (333) and New Zealand great Stephen Fleming (274 not out).
Root scaled to the top of the International Cricket Council’s men’s Test batting rankings in 2015, outdoing former South Africa maestro AB de Villiers and Australia superstar Steve Smith, but the Englishman has since slid to 11th.
New Zealand run-machine Kane Williamson, India gun Virat Kohli and Smith currently make up the top three.
England’s greatest Test run-scorers:
Alastair Cook: 12472
Graham Gooch: 8900
Alec Stewart: 8463
David Gower: 8231
Kevin Pietersen: 8181
Geoff Boycott: 8114
Joe Root: 8051
