England's batting maestro Joe Root achieved a new milestone as he surpassed Australian batting great Ricky Ponting to jump to second in the all-time top run scorer charts in Test cricket, on Day 3 of the fourth Test against India in Manchester on Friday.
Root steered India pacer Anshul Kamboj for a single to thirdman in the 101st over, to go past Ponting's tally of 13378 runs in Test cricket.
Only batting great Sachin Tendulkar is in front of Root with a world record Test tally of 15921 runs.
In the morning session, the 34-year-old England batter had overtaken legends Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis.
Earlier, Root picked an easy single off Mohammed Siraj in the 58th over to take his score to 31, which also took his overall Test tally to 13290 runs. He went past batting greats Jacques Kallis (13289 runs) and Rahul Dravid (13288 runs) to third place in the list for most runs by a batter in Test cricket.
The veteran England batter also brought up his 38th Test century in the post-lunch session to go level with Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara in the fourth spot for most hundreds by a batter in Test cricket.
Top 5 run-getters in Test cricket:
| Player | Country | Matches | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 200 | 15921 | 248 not out | 53.78 | 54.04 | 51 | 68 |
| Joe Root | England | 157 | 13379 | 262 | 51.25 | 57.40 | 38 | 66 |
| Ricky Ponting | Australia | 168 | 13378 | 257 | 51.85 | 58.72 | 41 | 62 |
| Jacques Kallis | South Africa | 166 | 13289 | 224 | 55.37 | 45.97 | 45 | 58 |
| Rahul Dravid | India | 164 | 13288 | 270 | 52.31 | 42.51 | 36 | 63 |
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