Joe Root and Harry Brook tore up the record books with a monster partnership in Multan, going past Colin Cowdrey and Peter May to register England's highest-ever partnership in Test cricket.
Having put England within touching distance of Pakistan's first innings score of 556 on day three, Root and Brook ground the home side into the dirt on day four. Root reached his double-century early in the day, after he was dropped by Babar Azam in the fourth over of the morning session, with Brook reaching his first Test double century before Lunch. Among the records both have broken in their innings' include Root becoming England's highest-ever Test run-scorer, his own highest ever Test score, and the highest score for a visiting side in Pakistan.
At the end of day three, Brook and Root's fourth-wicket partnership stood at 244, but it quickly passed 300 on the morning of day four. They pushed past 400 before Tea, closing in on the 411-run record for England's highest-ever partnership, which was also for the fourth wicket. They reached the milestone off the last ball of the first over after the Tea interval, taking three runs off a Brook drive.
The partnership was eventually broken when Root was trapped lbw by Salman Agha. The finally run tally for the partnership was 454 runs off 525 balls.
Full list: England's highest-ever Test partnerships
Players | Partnership runs | Opposition | Wicket | Venue | Year |
Harry Brook & Joe Root | 454 | Pakistan | 4 | Multan | 2024 |
Colin Cowdrey & Peter May | 411 | West Indies | 4 | Edgbaston | 1957 |
Jonny Bairstow & Ben Stokes | 399 | South Africa | 6 | Newlands | 2016 |
Len Hutton & Maurice Leyland | 382 | Australia | 2 | The Oval | 1938 |
Denis Compton & Bill Edrich | 370 | South Africa | 3 | Lord's | 1947 |
Ken Barrington & John Edrich | 369 | New Zealand | 2 | Headingley | 1965 |
Len Hutton & Cyril Washbrook | 359 | South Africa | 1 | Ellis Park | 1948 |
Jos Buttler & Zak Crawley | 359 | Pakistan | 5 | Southampton | 2020 |
Graham Gooch & David Gower | 351 | Australia | 2 | The Oval | 1985 |
Ian Bell & Kevin Pietersen | 350 | India | 3 | The Oval | 2011 |
Brook and Root's partnership broke a 67-year record set by Colin Cowdrey and Peter May against the West Indies in 1957. That partnership is England's only other to breach 400.
In terms of the all-time partnership record for any country, Root and Brook were still a way off breaking that barrier. Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara still have ownership of that record with their 624-run marathon against South Africa in 2006. However, Brook and Root's partnership is the highest-ever for the fourth wicket for any country, going past Shaun Marsh and Adam Voges' 449 against the West Indies in 2015. It is also the highest by any pair away from home, surpassing the 451 put on by Bill Ponsford and Don Bradman at The Oval in 1934.
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