New Delhi: Senior England batter Joe Root surpassed legendary South African player Jacques Kallis’ record for the fastest to 13,000 Test runs. Root achieved the landmark during the opening day of their one-off fixture against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge. In a high-scoring first day where England punished the Zimbabwe bowlers, Root, apart from achieving the milestone could not showcase his best and scored just 34 runs.

The senior English batter succumbed in front of the bowling of Blessing Muzarabani. Meanwhile, in the 153rd match, Root came on to the crease with all the fire, just 28 runs short of the milestone. With the landmark, he also took a step closer towards legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s record of highest runs in the longest format. He also became the first England batter and the fifth overall to breach the 13000-run mark.

Root achieves record in 80th over

In the 80th over of England’s first innings, Root took a single off Victor Nyauchi to storm past the Proteas all-rounder’s record, who got to it in his 159th match, six more that what Root took. Root became just the fifth batter to cross 13000 runs in Test format and with this record, he stands 2916 runs away from Tendulkar’s elusive run-tally of 15921.

Fastest batters to 13000 Test Runs

Joe Root (England) – 153 Matches
Jacques Kallis (South Africa) – 159 Matches
Rahul Dravid (India) – 160 Matches
Ricky Ponting (Australia) – 162 Matches
Sachin Tendulkar (India) – 163 Matches

Meanwhile, the milestone was achieved amid a dominant performance from the English side where three batters scored centuries. Hosting Zimbabwe in a Test for the first time since 2003, England posted a mammoth 498 for 3 at stumps on the opening day. Centuries from Ollie Pope (169 not out), Ben Duckett (140), and Zak Crawley (124) helped pile on the runs as Zimbabwe’s bowlers toiled without success.