Joe Root becomes the 3rd quickest to 4000 ODI runs

England’s Joe Root completed yet another milestone in his career during the final game of the 5-match ODI series against Windies. The Test captain completed 4000 runs in ODI cricket during this game played at Southampton. Thus, Root became the 103rd player and the 10th from England to aggregate over 4000 runs in ODI cricket. Since his debut in 2013, only Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers have scored over 4000 runs in this format.

Root, who had 3954 runs in ODI format before this game, scored exactly 46 runs in the 5th ODI to complete the milestone. When England needed one run to win the game, Root, who was batting on 40, struck a six straight over bowler Marlon Samuels’ head to complete 4000 ODI runs in style. By completing the milestone in just 91 innings, Root became the 3rd fastest to reach 4000 ODI runs.

South Africa’s Hashim Amla was the quickest to reach the mark as he needed just 81 innings breaking the then existing record of Windies’ Sir Vivian Richards, who took 88 innings. The likes of Virat Kohli and David Warner needed 93 innings each for the milestone, two more than what Root took for completing the 4000 ODI runs. Gordon Greenidge and Kane Williamson are the other two players who needed less than 100 innings for reaching 4000 ODI runs.

Fastest to 4000 ODI runs in terms of innings taken:

Root, who is the 10th England player to score 4000, took 17 innings lesser than the previous fastest to complete the milestone. Graham Gooch was the previous quickest to 4000 ODI runs among England players, he got there in 108 innings. During the 3rd ODI game of this series, Joe Root went past 10000 runs in International cricket and thus became the 4th quickest to the milestone taking only 222 innings and the fastest among his countrymen.

Fastest to 4000 ODI runs among England players:

(Stats as on September 29, 2017)