England cricket team batsman Joe Root created history by achieving a mammoth feat on the second day of the first Test match against Pakistan in Multan on Tuesday. Root became the first batsman in history to score 5000 runs in the World Test Championship (WTC) by hitting 32 off 54 deliveries with the help of two fours. Root needed 27 runs at the start of the match to achieve the big feat and he now has 5005 runs in 59 matches. Australian Marnus Labuschagne is second with 3904 runs while his compatriot Steve Smith is third with 3484 runs.

Meanwhile, Root moved one step closer to Sachin Tendulkar’s record of scoring more than 1,000 Test runs in most calendar years.

After Pakistan posted a mammoth total of 556 runs on the back of centuries with Salman Ali Agha (104*), Abdullah Shafique (102) and skipper Shan Masood (151).

After England lost stand-in captain Ollie Pope to Naseem Shah early in the first innings, Root took over to steady the visitors. He took a cautious approach to every delivery that came his way to ensure that England did not lose any more wickets after losing Pope.

While he exercised caution, Root relied heavily on the rotation of the shot, finding the boundary rope twice and returning unbeaten with a score of 32 (54).

Root, who is expected to surpass Sachin’s tally in red-ball cricket, returned to the dressing room after completing 1,000 Test runs in 2024. This was the fifth calendar year in which the 33-year-old managed to surpass the 1,000-run mark in Test cricket.

He just needs to complete another calendar year in which he reaches the 1,000 Test runs mark to catch up with ‘Master Blaster’ Sachin Tendulkar.

Sachin is currently at the helm with an impressive record of six calendar years in which he has played more than 1000 Test runs.

With a tally of five, Root is now level with Brian Lara, Matthew Hayden, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara and Alastair Cook, who have scored more than 1,000 Test runs in most calendar years.

(With ANI inputs)