Former Indian skipper and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly took to his Twitter account on Sunday (June 05) to laud England's Joe Root for becoming the latest member of the coveted 10000-run club.
Root racked up his 26th hundred on the 4th day of the Lord's Test against New Zealand, and in the process, he joined his former skipper Alastair Cook to become just the 2nd English cricketer to rack up the milestone.
Following his record-breaking knock, which helped England claim their first Test win after nine attempts, Ganguly hailed the former Test skipper as an 'all-time great'.
He wrote:
Chasing 277 to win the first Test, England were in a huge spot of bother last afternoon after losing their first three wickets in the form of Zak Crawley, Alex Lees and Ollie Pope under 50 runs.
It went from bad to worse when Kyle Jameison knocked over Jonny Bairstow when the score was just 69. It could have been even worse had Colin de Grandhomme not overstepped the popping crease before knocking over Ben Stokes.
Stokes got a lucky reprieve, as did England, and together, the former and current Test captain went on to add 90 runs for the 5th wicket to bring their side back in the game.
But England still needed more than 100 runs when Jamieson dismissed Stokes. However, along with Ben Foakes, Root ensured that there were no further jitters as the duo successfully overhauled the total on the 4th morning.
This was Root's second successive ton at Lord's in Tests, and the 31-year-old would be pleased that this knock has come in a winning cause, unlike last time.
Root is the 14th player to join the 10k club. The list boasts names like Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Kumar Sangakkara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Alan Border, Sunil Gavaskar, Steve Waugh, Alastair Cook, Younis Khan, Mahela Jayawardene.