England captain Alastair Cook is all set to surpass India’s Sachin Tendulkar as the youngest batsman to reach the 10,000 runs mark in Test cricket.
The southpaw boasts 9964 runs in 126 Test outings and will get an opportunity to go past Tendulkar when England, under his leadership, take on Sri Lanka in a three-match Test series which kicks off May 19.
Tendulkar reached the milestone in March 2005 at Kolkata against Pakistan at an age of 31 years and 10 months while Cook, who turned 31 on December 25 will take the record away from the ‘little master’, five months earlier, if he scores the required 36 runs in the first Test at Headingley.
It would be a great accomplishment for the England captain, who, after a difficult period of two years between June 2013 to May 2015, in which he failed to score a Test ton, has emerged extraordinarily to become one of the best modern day batsmen.
After posting a breakthrough ton against the West Indies in Bridgetown, the left-hander hit another at Lord's against New Zealand, and also scored a massive 263 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi last October to take his career tally to 28 – the most by an Englishman.
Reaching the 10,000-run mark will also make Cook the first English batsman to achieve the feat.
Cook, who currently plays for Essex in English County Cricket, has been in top form since the start of the domestic season, scoring 88, 105, 35, 1, 127 and 65 so far with a total of 421 runs in the 2016 County Championship Division Two for his team.
Although Cook looks extremely likely to become the youngest man to score 10,000 Test runs, he won't be the fastest to reach the landmark in terms of number of innings played.
The record of fastest 10,000 runs is currently shared by Tendulkar, West Indies great Brian Lara and former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara, who each took 195 innings to reach the milestone.
Cook, with 226 innings in Tests cricket at present stands between South Africa’s Jacques Kallis (217 inns) and Australia’s Allan Border (235) on ninth position in the 10,000-run club.
Other players, who are closest to joining this club, are Pakistan veteran Younis Khan and South Africa’s AB de Villiers who stand at 9116 runs and 8074 runs respectively.
