Alastair Cook breaks Sachin Tendulkar’s record, becomes youngest batsman to 10,000 Test runs

England skipper and opening batsman Alastair Cook broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record of being the youngest man in history to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket in the second innings of the second Test match during Sri Lanka’s tour of England. Tendulkar’s record had stood for 11 years after he crossed the 10,000-run barrier against Pakistan at the Eden Gardens in March 2005.

The Master Blaster had set the record aged 31 years, 10 months and 20 days, while Cook has managed to complete 10,000 runs aged 31 years, 5 months and 5 days.

While Cook managed to break Tendulkar’s record of being the youngest man to reach the 10,000-run mark, he has taken 226 innings in 126 Test matches to reach the milestone. Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Kumar Sangakkara hold the joint record for reaching the 10,000-run mark in their 195th innings.

The thought of breaking the longstanding record was weighing on Cook’s mind but he was confident that he could put aside such thoughts and concentrate on his batting. Earlier, he had said, “You'd be lying if you said you were not thinking about. Can I put it to the back of my mind and focus at the top of the mark? I'm pretty sure I can."

The England skipper has been a regular source of runs for the English team since his debut in 2006.

The 31-year old becomes the first English cricketer in history to make 10,000 Test runs and becomes the only the 12th batsman to achieve this feat. The other batsmen, apart from Tendulkar and Cook to have crossed the 10,000 run mark are Brian Lara, Kumar Sangakkara, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Mahela Jayawardene, Sunil Gavaskar, Jacques Kallis, Allan Border, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Steve Waugh.

England host the Sri Lankans in a 3-Test, 5-ODI “Super Series” which will also include a solitary T20 match. The winner of the series will be decided on the basis of the points accrued in all three formats of the game.