Joe Root walked out at Lord’s knowing exactly what was on the table. He did not need a hundred. He did not even need a fifty. Twenty-four runs would do.
He got them, and with them he walked past Ricky Ponting into a realm of his own: the highest run‑scorer in Test history on home soil.
The landmark arrived on Day 2 of the second Test against Pakistan, in a strangely low-key innings for such a towering achievement. Root made 24 before Mohammad Ali pinned him lbw, a brief stay by his standards, but long enough to push him to 7,594 Test runs in England. Ponting’s 7,578 in Australia, a mark that had stood as the gold standard for home dominance, is now second on the list.
Sachin Tendulkar, whose name shadows every major batting record, sits third with 7,216 runs in India.
A home giant
Strip away the romance and the numbers still shout.
Root’s 7,594 home runs have come in 89 Tests and 156 innings at an average of 53.85. The ledger shows 24 centuries, 35 fifties, and a highest score of 254. These are not the figures of a player who simply cashes in on flat pitches; they belong to a batter who has carried an era.
Ponting’s home record remains monumental: 7,578 runs from 92 Tests and 154 innings at 56.97, with 23 hundreds and 38 fifties, topped by that towering 257. Tendulkar’s 7,216 at home were carved out across 94 Tests and 153 innings, with India on his shoulders for the better part of two decades.
Mahela Jayawardene and Jacques Kallis complete the top five in this particular club of home masters, but it is Root who now stands at the front of the queue.
This is not a late-career flourish. Root’s home dominance has been built steadily since his debut in 2013, through captaincy upheavals, shifting batting orders and changing coaches. He has been the one fixed point in an England side that has often felt in flux.
Eyes on Tendulkar’s all-time summit
With Ponting overtaken, the conversation naturally climbs to the highest peak of all.
Root now has 14,208 runs in 168 Tests. Tendulkar’s all-time Test record remains 15,921. The gap: 1,713 runs.
That is not a small number. It is, however, no longer a distant fantasy. For a player who has made a career of churning out runs across formats and conditions, the chase has taken on a sense of inevitability. The question is no longer whether Root belongs in the same breath as the Indian great, but how long it will take him to reach that summit, and what shape England’s Test side will be in when he gets there.
Every innings from here carries a double weight: runs for England in the moment, and steps toward one of the game’s most imposing records.
England in command despite the weather
While Root’s personal milestone grabbed the headlines, the broader story at Lord’s is of an England side methodically tightening their grip on the series.
By the close of a heavily disrupted Day 3, England had moved to 177 for 7 in their second innings, a lead of 357. On a surface offering enough to keep both seamers and spinners interested, that already feels like a total with teeth.
The day itself never found a proper rhythm. Morning rain wiped out the first session, and only 24.5 overs were possible in all. England resumed in the afternoon on 81 for 3 and had to graft through patches of probing bowling and awkward light.
They did not emerge unscathed. Emilio Gay, who had looked composed for his 31, departed. Harry Brook, always eager to impose himself, fell for 34. Jamie Smith managed only seven. Each time Pakistan sniffed a way back, Mohammad Abbas was involved, the seamer finishing with 3 for 48 and once again underlining his knack for exploiting English conditions.
When Gus Atkinson was trapped lbw by Mohammad Ali for seven, England had lost four wickets for 96 runs. For a brief spell, the game felt open again.
Then Dan Lawrence changed the mood.
Lawrence seizes the moment
Lawrence batted with a freedom that cut through the gloom. He moved to a brisk, unbeaten 50 from 66 balls, picking his moments to attack and refusing to let the innings stall. While others had been dragged into survival mode, he looked determined to drive the game forward.
At the other end, Ollie Robinson dug in, reaching the close on two not out. The partnership may not yet be decisive on the scorecard, but its intent was clear: England want to shut Pakistan out of this match as quickly as possible.
Just as Lawrence began to open his shoulders, the weather intervened again. Only 14 balls were bowled after tea before the rain returned. Bad light eventually forced the umpires to call off play at 6.30pm, leaving the ground under grey skies and Pakistan clinging to the faintest of hopes.
Series on the line
The wider context matters here. England had already crushed Pakistan by an innings in the first Test at Headingley. They began this match by posting 290 in their first innings, then ripping through Pakistan for 110. Every session since has underlined the gulf in control and confidence between the two sides.
Now, with a lead of 357 and three wickets in hand, England stand on the brink of sealing the three-match series with a game to spare. Pakistan will need something close to a miracle chase, or a monumental effort from the weather, to escape.
Root’s 24 at Lord’s will not go down as one of his great innings. It did not need to. The significance lay not in the style, but in the accumulation, in another small addition to a mountain of runs that now eclipses even Ponting on home soil.
The next landmark is higher, harder, and more historic. As England push for another series win, the clock on Tendulkar’s all-time record keeps ticking. How many more runs will Root add before this summer is done?
