Alastair Cook surpasses Sachin Tendulkar as fastest to 10k runs in Tests

Alastair Cook on Monday became the first England cricketer to cross the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket, and the youngest overall, beating Sachin Tendulkar’s record set in 2005 by five months at the age of 31 years, five months. Tendulkar – Test cricket’s leading run-scorer – was 31 years, ten months 20 days old when he scored his 10,000th run in 2005.

England captain Cook, already his country’s leading Test run-scorer, came into the ongoing second Test against Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street just 20 runs away from becoming the first Englishman to join the coveted 10k club. Cook was dismissed for 15 runs in the first innings and the landmark came in post-lunch session of the fourth day in the second over of the second innings when he flicked a Nuwan Pradeep delivery to mid-wicket for four.

Cook is the 12th batsman to get to 10,000 runs in Tests, after Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting , Jacques Kallis , Rahul Dravid , Kumar Sangakkara , Brian Lara , Shivnarine Chanderpaul , Mahela Jayawardene , Allan Border , Steve Waugh and Sunil Gavaskar. Pakistan’s Younis Khan is the next active batsman with a chance at entering the club, having 9116 to his name, and there is a chance he joins Cook with Pakistan playing four Tests in England later this summer.