New Delhi: As England take on Sri Lanka in the first Test of the three-match series beginning today at Leeds, skipper Alastair Cook is on the verge of breaking a historic record.
The left-hander is just 36 runs away from joining the prestigious 10,000-run club in the traditional format of the game.
In case if he manages to do that, Cook will enter history books by becoming the youngest man in history to do so, surpassing the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, whose 10,000th Test run came against Pakistan in Kolkata in March 2005, a little more than a month before his 32nd birthday.
In case if Cook, who turned 31 on December 25 last year, scores the 36 runs in the opening Test against the Lankans at Headingley, he would reach the 10,000 barrier five months younger than the Indian batting icon.
Cook would have achieved the feat much earlier, had he not gone through a forgettable period (June 2013 and May 2015) for two years, where he could not score a single ton in Tests.
In the absence of stalwarts like Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, Angelo Mathews and his boys will have to play out of their skins to put a good show in the Test series.
