England Senior batsman Joe Root, who is currently on duty with the national team for a 5-match test series in Indiahas become the first batsman in the world to record 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 first Test at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad. The Test specialist batsman before coming out to bat at number 4, needed just 13 runs to complete 4000 runs in this third WTC cycle since its inception in 2019.
He leads the World Test Championship run rankings and is well ahead of the second-best batsman on the list. The former England captain completed his 4000th run in the 21st over, bowled by all-rounder Axar Patel for a double off the fifth delivery.
Joe Root looked great in touch and didn’t fail to show his intent straight away. He was playing with confidence and being a very good spin player, Root looked comfortable facing Ravi Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar Patel. He continued to rotate the attack and steadied England’s ship alongside Johnny Bairstow in the opening minutes of the second session.
The visitors had started the game in Bazball fashion, scoring the first 50 runs very quickly while maintaining a strike rate of 4. However, as soon as the spinners were introduced, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley were scrutinized and the former became Ashwin’s first wicket. day.
Jadeja then removed Ollie Pope with a simple catch for Rohit Sharma’s first slip before Ashwin caught Crawley leg short of the wicket. In the first session, England scored over 100 runs and it was the first time since 2018 that the hosts conceded 100 runs in the first 2 and a half hours.
Johnny Bairstow and Joe Root closed the first session very well and India needed a breakthrough very quickly heading into the second session.
After completing Joe Root’s 4,000 WTC runs, England suffer sudden slump
The second session began in favor of the Indians. Axar Patel started England’s sudden downfall with a fantastic clean delivery to dangerous batsman Jonny Bairstow. Then, Joe Root, who was touted to score big for England on Day 1, was forced out of the middle after mis-timing an attempted reverse sweep that took the edge of his bat and went into the hands of Jasprit Bumrah, who was sliding down the legs.
Soon after, Ben Foakes headed to the dressing room after scoring just 4 runs, becoming Axar Patel’s second scalp, while Rehan Ahmed left 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 register a total of 200+ 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 3,797 runs, while Steve Smith (3,338), Ben Stokes (2,710) and Babar Azam (2,661) round out the top 5.