England skipper Alastair Cook on Thursday became the first batsman from his country to score 2,000 runs against hosts India on the first day of the fourth Test between the two teams at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. He is the sixth batsman overall to achieve the milestone against India, with former Australian captain Ricky Ponting topping the charts with 2,555 runs in 51 innings.
However, the 32-year-old southpaw missed his 54th Test fifty when he was stumped by Parthiv Patel off Ravindra Jadeja’s delivery at a score of 46. However, the visitors are in a comfortable position at lunch with the scoreboard reading 117 for the loss of a wicket after winning the toss. Debutante Keaton Jennings is unbeaten on 65 while Joe Root is playing at 5.
As far as Cook is concerned, he is now the third English batsman to have scored more than 2,000 runs. He has scored 2,117 runs against Australia so far. Not many would be aware that Cook is about to reach 11,000 Test runs as well. It is expected that he will achieve the feat in the next innings.
At Lunch on Day 1 of the 4th Test, England are 117/1(Jennings 65*, Root 5*)
Follow the game here – https://t.co/ZlqFjQOpaD #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/VTbAkmdEhD— BCCI (@BCCI) December 8, 2016
England are currently 0-2 down in the five-match series with the final Test scheduled to be played in Chennai on December 16. The visitors have won the last three bilateral series in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
Earlier, the Indian team received a jolt to their hopes of taking a series winning lead after batsman Ajinkya Rahane and pacer Mohammad Shami were ruled out of the Test. Rahane, who broke his right index finger at the nets, has been ruled out of the series, whereas Shami has not recovered from the soreness in his knee.
