Overtaking the Master: Alastair Cook surpasses Sachin Tendulkar as fastest to 10,000 runs in Tests

Alastair Cook became the first England batsman to score 10,000 Test runs when he made five against Sri Lanka on the fourth day of the second Test at the Riverside on Friday. The England captain became just the 12th batsman – and the only one still playing Tests – in history to reach the landmark when the left-handed opener clipped Nuwan Pradeep for four through mid-wicket. He was also the youngest to do so at 31 years and 157 days old, beating the previous record of India great Sachin Tendulkar (31 years and 326 days). [caption id=“attachment_2807194” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The giant scoreboard shows Alastair Cook after reaching 10,000 test runs. Getty[/caption] This was Cook’s 128th Test and 229th innings at this level. The Essex batsman scored a hundred on debut against India at Nagpur in 2006 and has now made 28 Test centuries. At 31, Cook could have several more years as an international cricketer left in him, but whether he will break Tendulkar’s all time aggregate Test record of 15,921 runs made in 200 Tests remains to be seen. Batsmen to have scored 10,000 runs in Tests player, team, span, matches, innings, not outs, runs, highest score, average, 100s, 50s   Sachin Tendulkar (IND) 1989-2013 200 329 33 15921 248 no 53.78 51 68 Ricky Ponting (AUS) 1995-2012 168 287 29 13378 257 51.85 41 62 Jacques Kallis(ICC/RSA) 1995-2013 166 280 40 13289 224 55.37 45 58 Rahul Dravid (ICC/IND) 1996-2012 164 286 32 13288 270 52.31 36 63 Kumar Sangakkara (SRI) 2000-2015 134 233 17 12400 319 57.40 38 52 Brian Lara (ICC/WIS) 1990-2006 131 232 6 11953 400 no 52.88 34 48 Shiv Chanderpaul (WIS) 1994-2015 164 280 49 11867 203 no 51.37 30 66 Mahela Jayawardene (SRI) 1997-2014 149 252 15 11814 374 49.84 34 50 Allan Border (AUS) 1978-1994 156 265 44 11174 205 50.56 27 63 Stephen Waugh (AUS) 1985-2004 168 260 46 10927 200 51.06 32 50 Sunil Gavaskar (IND) 1971-1987 125 214 16 10122 236 no 51.12 34 45 Alastair Cook (ENG) 2006- 128 228 13 10000 294 46.32 28 47 Note: Cook’s figues as at when he scored 10,000th run, innings still in progress.