England scored their highest post-war total today (October 10), wracking up an astonishing 823-7 before declaring in Multan. Here are all the records they broke in the process.
Having resumed on day four on 492-3, Joe Root and Harry Brook took them to 703-4 before they lost another wicket. Cameos from Jamie Smith (31 off 34) and Chris Woakes (17 off 16) took them to 823 before Ollie Pope signalled the declaration from the balcony, with a 267-run first innings lead over Pakistan. England hit those 823 runs in exactly 150 overs at an overall run rate of 5.48.
While 823-7 isn't England's highest ever Test score, it's comfortably their highest score in the post-war era. Their actual highest Test score is 903-7 against Australia in 1938, while their previous highest in the post-war period was 710-7 against India in 2011. However, 823-7 is the fourth-highest Test score for any side of all time, with Sri Lanka's 952-6 against India in 1997 still comfortably the highest.
The bulk of those runs were scored in the stellar fourth-wicket partnership between Root and Brook. They put on 454 runs together, which is England's highest-ever Test partnership, the highest-ever partnership for the fourth wicket in a Test for any side, as well as being the highest partnership for any overseas side ever. It was also the fourth-highest for any wicket in Test history, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara still holding that particular record with 624 runs against South Africa for the third wicket in 2006.
Both Root and Brook made double centuries, Root reaching his early in the day before Brook passed 200 for the first time in his career just before Lunch. It was Root's sixth double-century of his Test career, moving him level with, among others, Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting on the list of the most double-hundreds scored during a Test career. He's still some way off Don Bradman's 12. However, he is closing in on the all-time England record, now in second place, one adrift of Wally Hammond's seven. On day three of the match, Root went past Alastair Cook's Test career run tally to become England's leading Test run-scorer of all time, finishing his innings with 12,664 runs. Root was finally dismissed for 262, his highest-ever Test score beating the 254 he scored against Pakistan in Manchester in 2016.
After Root was out, Brook carried on towards 300, eventually reaching the milestone with a four down the ground off Saim Ayub. The ball that took him past 300 was Brook's 317th of his innings, making his triple century the second-fastest of all time behind Virender Sehwag's 278-ball effort in 2008. He is also England's first triple centurion since Graham Gooch in 1990, and is only the sixth England player to reach the milestone - the 28th from any nation. Brook is also England's second-youngest Test centurion at 25 years and 220 days old, with Len Hutton the youngest at 22.
The innings continued Brook's incredible run of form in Pakistan, which goes back to England's last tour of the country in 2022. He now has an average of 130.83 in Pakistan, having scored 785 runs from just six innings. Those runs have included four centuries, as many as Saeed Anwar achieved in Pakistan across his career, one more than Imran Khan and only two fewer than Babar Azam. He is also now equal with Aravinda De Silva and Mohinder Amarnath for the most Test centuries scored by an overseas batter in Pakistan.
Since his debut in 2022, Brook has now scored 1,875 runs from 19 Tests, with five centuries. His average (62.50) is the highest since Don Bradman for batters who have played a minimum of 30 Test innings. He and Root together now average exactly 81 as a partnership, the sixth-most for any pair with a minimum of 20 partnerships.
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