Pakistan Vs England, 1st Test: A Look At Joe Root Vs Alastair Cook Stats Comparison

Root broke Cook's record of 12,472 runs when he moved onto 71 against Pakistan with a sublime drive for four.

That moved Root onto 12,473 runs, making him England's outright leading scorer in Test cricket.

The former Test captain, who made his debut in December 2012, has played 147 matches in the longest format, batting in 268 innings in total. He has been not out on 22 occasions.

His high score is 254, which came against Pakistan.

By the time he hit his record-breaking boundary, Root had plundered 34 centuries, 65 half-centuries and struck 1,349 fours and 44 sixes. He has been dismissed for a duck 12 times.

He has scored more runs against India (2,846) than against any other team, with Australia (2,428) his next favourite opponent. Root's high score in 55 innings against India is 218.

In comparison, Cook ended his illustrious career with a Test average of 45.35 and a high score of 294, which came against India, who he scored 4,431 runs against in total.

However, Australia were Cook's favourite team to bat against when it came to run scoring – he tallied up 2,493 against them, albeit his highest average came against West Indies (57.96 – 1,739 runs scored total in 35 innings).

Cook, who hit just 11 sixes but struck 1,442 fours, batted for 291 innings across 161 matches, and has gone unbeaten on 16 occasions. His strike rate was 46.95, while he hit 33 centuries and 57 half-centuries. He was only dismissed for a duck nine times.