England batting maestro Joe Root achieved a historic milestone during the ongoing Multan Test against Pakistan as he became the first player to cross the 5000-run landmark in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC).
Root was 27 runs away from the milestone before the match and he successfully reached the target on Tuesday. He came out to bat in the second over after captain Ollie Pope’s dismissal and scored 32 runs at the Stumps on Day 2.
He is standing at the top of the run-scoring charts of the WTC, followed by the Australian duo of Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith with 3904 runs and 3484 runs respectively.
As of this writing, Joe Root is playing at 56 with the scoreboard reading 184-2 on Day 3. England are trailing by 372 runs.
Pakistan piled up a mammoth 556 runs courtesy of captain Shan Masood’s 151 as well as Abdullah Shafique and Salman Ali Agha’s centuries.
The home team lost their two wickets in quick succession in the third session on Day 2 to end their marathon innings.
Abrar Ahmed (3) was the last wicket to fall, falling prey to part-time bowler Joe Root. Prior to that, Shaheen Shah Afridi, who scored a crucial 26 runs, was bowled by Jack Leach.
Salman Ali Agha remained unbeaten at 104 runs from 119 balls, which featured ten boundaries and three sixes.
Playing XIs
Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (c), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel (vc), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, and Abrar Ahmad.
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, and Shoaib Bashir.
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