Joe Root becomes first cricketer in WTC history to achieve this historic feat

England’s senior batter Joe Root who is currently on duty with the national side for a 5-match Test series in India, has become the first batsman in the world to register 4000 runs in the World Test Championship, which is a revamped knockout version of Test cricket that runs on a 2-year cycle.

Joe Root completed this incredible feat on Day 1 of the 1st Test in Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi stadium. The Test specialist batsman before walking out to bat at number 4, needed just 13 runs to complete 4000 runs in this 3rd WTC cycle since its inception in 2019.

He is leading the run-scoring charts of the World Test championship and is far ahead of the 2nd best batsman in the list. The former England skipper completed his 4000th run in the 21st over bowled by all-rounder Axar Patel by taking a double in the 5th delivery.

Joe Root was looking a great touch and did not fail to show his intent right away. He was playing confidently and being a very good player of spin, Root looked comfortable facing Ravi Ashwin, Jadeja, and Axar Patel. He kept rotating the strike and steadied England’s ship alongside Johnny Bairstow in the early minutes of 2nd session.

The visitors had started the game the Bazball way, scoring the first 50 runs very quickly by maintaining a strike rate of 4. However, as soon as spinners were introduced, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley were scrutinized with the former becoming Ashwin’s 1st wicket of the day.

Then Jadeja removed Ollie Pope with a simple catch for 1st slip Rohit Sharma before Ashwin caught Crawley’s leg before wicket. The 1st session saw England score over 100 runs and it was the first instance since 2018 that the hosts conceded 100 runs in the first 2 and half hours.

Johnny Bairstow and Joe Root closed the 1st session very well and India needed a breakthrough very quickly heading into the 2nd session.

Following Joe Root’s 4000 WTC Runs Completion, England Suffer Sudden Downfall

The 2nd session started in the favor of Indians. Axar Patel started the sudden downfall of England with a fantastic clean bowled to dangerous batter Jonny Bairstow. Then Joe Root who was being touted to score something big for England on day 1 was forced to depart from the middle after mistiming an attempted reverse sweep shot which took the edge of his bat and went to the hands of leg-slipper Jasprit Bumrah.

Soon later Ben Foakes headed to the dressing room after scoring just 4 runs, becoming Axar Patel’s 2nd scalp while Rehan Ahmed departed after scoring 13 runs. England have lost 7 wickets but the good news for them is the presence of Ben Stokes in the middle.

The visitors will have to hope that Stokes bats for as long as he can so that England can at least post a 200+ total on the board. Meanwhile, Joe Root departed after scoring 4005 runs in the WTC cycle in what is his 48th Test match since 2019. He has 12 Hundreds and 16 half-centuries to his name with a best of 228.

Below him is Marnus Labuschagne who has 3797 runs while Steve Smith (3338), Ben Stokes (2710), and Babar Azam (2661) conclude the top 5.