Joe Root Joins Sachin Tendulkar, Alastair Cook In Elite List

Under-pressure England skipper Joe Root had something to cheer about on Thursday during the fifth Ashes Test. Joe Root has been facing criticism from all around for his poor captaincy as well as batting as England failed to reclaim the Ashes. England conceded the Ashes after losing the fourth Test in Manchester.

This is the first time, England conceded the Ashes at home since 2001. Joe Root’s batting did not help his cause either. In the first four Tests, he registered as many as three ducks. Well, the England batting mainstay found his form on Thursday and scored a fifty before being castled by Pat Cummins once again.

Prior to his departure, he also achieved a number of milestones. The right-handed batsman became the third youngest batsmen to reach the 7,000 run mark in the longest format of the game.

Root achieved the landmark at the age of 28 years and 256 days and is now behind only his predecessor Sir Alastair Cook (27 years, 346 days) and India legend Sachin Tendulkar (28 years, 193 days). He also became the the fourth quickest English batsmen (158 innings) and only 12th cricketer from his country to achieve the feat. Only Wally Hammond, Kevin Pietersen and Cook are faster than Root to 7,000 Test runs.

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He achieved one more feat as he surpassed Australia great Don Bradman in the all-time Test run-scorer list. Sir Don Bradman finished his Test career with 6996 runs.

Talking about the Test, England threw away a solid start to finish the day on a precarious 271 for 8. The situation could have been worse but Jos Buttler’s unbeaten 64-run knock saved England. The hard-hitting batsman shared an unbeaten 45-run stand with Jack Leach.

England had earlier lost five wickets for 56 runs to slide from 170-3 to 226-8. That position could have been worse for England had Joe Root not been dropped three times while Rory Burns overturned an lbw decision on the way to 47.