Alastair Cook on verge of 10,000 Test runs

England captain Alastair Cook is set to become the youngest player to score 10,000 Test runs when his side play Sri Lanka in the first Test at Headingley.

Cook - aged 31 years, four months and 24 days on Thursday - needs 36 runs to break Indian Sachin Tendulkar's record.

He will be the 12th player to reach the milestone, and the first Englishman.

"I have managed to score consistent runs for England over 10 years - and that gives me more pride than being compared to anyone else," said Cook.

Tendulkar was 31 years, 10 months and 20 days old when he scored his 10,000th run in 2005.

Brian Lara, Kumar Sangakkara, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Mahela Jayawardene, Sunil Gavaskar, Jacques Kallis, Allan Border, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Steve Waugh are the other batsmen to reach the milestone.

"It will be a nice moment and you get to join an elite band of Test cricketers," Cook told BBC Test Match Special. "Those guys are far better batters than me.

"If the moment does come this week it would be a great moment personally.

Cook is also just 221 runs away from surpassing Gavaskar for most Test runs by an opening batsman.







If Cook is to overtake Tendulkar, he is going to need to play another 7/8 years. Over the last 4 years, Cook has scored 3,675 runs. A repeat of that over the next 4 years would vault him ahead of Ponting into second place all-time.