On the fourth day of the first Test against New Zealand at Lords, Root accomplished an unbelievable accomplishment. He completed a brace by nudging the ball off Tim Southee to deep square to reach a double milestone – his 26th Test century and 10,000 Test runs. It was his first century in a Test innings’ fourth innings.
He also became the second Englishman after Alastair Cook to reach 10,000 Test runs, and is on his way to overtaking him as England’s all-time leading run-scorer. Root and Cook were exactly the same age when they arrived at the monument – 31 years and 157 days.
Root became the 14th player to surpass 10,000 runs, and the first since Younis Khan broke the milestone during the Test series against the West Indies in 2017.
Sunil Gavaskar of India was the first player to accomplish the milestone in 1987, followed by Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Mahela Jayawardena, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kumar Sangakkara, Alastair Cook, Yonis Khan, and now Joe Root.
Joe Root is the ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year.
Root has established himself as a mainstay of the England team since making his debut in December 2012. Root amassed 9889 runs at an average of 49.19 in 117 Tests prior to the start of the game, with 25 hundreds.
Root is the first batsman in Test history to reach 10,000 runs in under ten years.
In the previous two years, the 31-year-old has been in fantastic form and has frequently been England’s lone fighter in Test matches. With 1301 runs in the current season of the ICC World Test Championship, he is now in first place.
Joe Root’s acceptance speech for the ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year
Root had a particularly successful year in 2021. He concluded the year with 1708 Test runs at an average of 61.00 in 15 matches. It was the third-highest total of runs by any player in Test history in a calendar year. He won the ICC Men’s Test Player of the Year Award to top up a fantastic 2021.
Root can now fully concentrate on his batting and breaking several more records in the coming years after stepping down as Test captain.