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Joe Root surpassed Sachin Tendulkar to hold the record for the most runs scored in the fourth innings in Test cricket.
Joe Root scored a quickfire 15-ball 23 to help England beat New Zealand by 8 wickets. (Image: AFP)
England’s Joe Root has yet another record to his name. This time he surpassed the legendary Sachin Tendulkar to hold the record for the most runs scored in the fourth innings in Test cricket after his brief cameo against New Zealand to help his side win by eight wickets in Christchurch on Sunday.
The visitors were chasing down a small target of 103 runs for the win and Root chipped in with 23 runs off 15 deliveries to help the side chase down the score in just 12.4 overs.
Root has now scored a total of 1630 runs from the 56 games he has batted in the fourth innings. This surpasses the previous record-holder, Tendulkar who had scored 1625 runs in 74 innings.
| Highest Run-Scorers in Test Cricket At 4th Innings | |||||
| Name | Team | Matches | Innings | Runs | Average |
| Joe Root | England | 56 | 49 | 1630 | 41.79 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 74 | 60 | 1625 | 36.93 |
| Alastair Cook | England | 54 | 53 | 1611 | 35.8 |
| Graeme Smith | South Africa | 42 | 41 | 1611 | 51.96 |
| Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies | 63 | 49 | 1580 | 41.57 |
| Rahul Dravid | India | 65 | 57 | 1575 | 40.38 |
| Younis Khan | Pakistan | 47 | 40 | 1465 | 50.51 |
| Ricky Ponting | Australia | 56 | 43 | 1462 | 50.41 |
| Brian Lara | West Indies | 52 | 46 | 1440 | 25.12 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | India | 34 | 33 | 1398 | 58.25 |
Some legendary names are amongst the top 10 run-scorers in the fourth innings. This includes the likes of Sir Alastair Cook at third position with 1611 runs who was also the Englishman with the most runs scored in the final innings.
Among the finest Indian batters in history, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar are also on the list with 1575 and 1398 runs scored respectively and are at sixth and tenth spots in the list as well.
Root is also England’s highest run-scorer in Test cricket and has seen a massive rise in form in recent times. He currently leads the run-scoring charts for the ongoing cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 with 1773 runs to his name. He could go on and extend his tally with England playing two more Tests against New Zealand in the ongoing series.
Despite Root’s fine form with the bat, England remains out of the race to secure a spot in the WTC final. This is after the side suffered crushing defeats during their tours of India, and Australia among others.
England will hope that Root can continue his rich vein of form in the next cycle where they hope that they can finally get the chance for the WTC title by making it to the final for the first time.
