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In the first session on day three of the fourth Test at Old Trafford in Manchester against India, Joe Root, the former England captain, became the third highest run-scorer in Test cricket, going past two of the legendary batters in the all-time list. When the right-handed batter scored his 31st run on the bowling of Mohammed Siraj in England’s first innings, he reached the 13,290-run mark at the Test level, eclipsing Jacques Kallis (13,289) and Rahul Dravid (13,288) within a space of a few minutes.
The milestone moment for Joe Root came in his 157th Test appearance in front of thousands of fans in attendance at Old Trafford in Manchester, who rose in appreciation of the great man. He is now behind only Sachin Tendulkar (15,921) and Ricky Ponting (13,378) in the all-time list for most runs in Test cricket, and it is expected that he will go past the latter in the ongoing England versus India series.
As far as the Manchester Test goes, England are in a commanding position on day three, managing to not lose any wicket in the first hour of the first session despite some impressive bowling from Indian pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. With Joe Root and Ollie Pope still at the crease, England have gone past 250 runs while losing only two wickets in pursuit of India’s first innings total of 358 runs.
England will be hoping to keep this partnership going heading into lunch on day three, to put India very much out of the contest, especially when the series is 2-1 in their favour.
Below are the playing XIs of England and India for the fourth Test at Old Trafford in Manchester:
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Liam Dawson, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Anshul Kamboj, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
