Long time for someone to break Joe Root's Test record: Ben Stokes

Joe Root went past former England captain, Alastair Cook’s record for highest runs in Test cricket. During the Day 3 of the first Test between Pakistan and England, Root achieved the milestone when he got to the score of 71. It is worth noting that, Cook said adieu to Test becoming the highest run scorer for England in Tests with 12472 runs in 161 matches.

Root took 147 matches to surpass Cook to claim the first spot in England's coveted batters pantheon and the fifth spot in the all-time list. The right-handed batter is behind former India cricketer, Rahul Dravid, who has 13288 runs. Meanwhile, star English all-rounder Ben Stokes heaped praises on his colleague’s achievement and called him selfless, while forecasting that record is very hard to break.

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“Yeah, I played a lot of my cricket with Joe for England, and played a lot of cricket against someone…we grew up together. To score that many runs, you'd think that they'd have to be a little bit selfishness about the player, but everything that he does when he's got his battles, the Ham is all about team. I remember a couple of years ago when he was getting stuck left, right, and centre for not converting his 50s and 100s, but he was averaging over 50. I just couldn't get my head around it,” said Stokes while speaking to ECB.

Selflessness that he has is an incredible attribute for him: Stokes

The veteran has been in marauding form. He scored twin hundreds in the Lord’s Test against Sri Lanka in August, and had 34 Test Tons to his name before the Pakistan tour. Stokes added that Root puts the team first over individual achievement, and he also said that Root’s landmark helps the team’s cause while terming those milestones as a bonus.

Also Read: Joe Root Breaks WTC Record | Surpasses Alastair Cook as England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer

“But then, from my point of view, when I looked at how many hundreds Joe scored, and we've won games, or he's seen us over the line with his hundreds, you know, first, he needs 100s, and then that's what I look at. There's the amount of times that he's won a stick. The selflessness that he has is an incredible attribute for him. He always puts the team first and the fact that he has got so many runs is just a bonus for us. He's an incredible player, it's going to take a long, long time for someone to come in and break that record,” he added.