England head coach Trevor Bayliss has insisted that there is "no reason" why Alastair Cook cannot overtake Sachin Tendulkar as the leading run-scorer in Test cricket history.
Cook became the first Englishman to hit the 10,000-run milestone during the second Test against Sri Lanka on Monday, doing so at a younger age than any of the 11 other players to have achieved the feat.
While he is still some way short of Tendulkar's all-time record of 15,921 runs, Bayliss believes that the 31-year-old has the time to catch the Indian icon.
"Just listening when I first got here, all of the criticism and not necessarily winning as much as he'd have liked was weighing him down a little bit," he told reporters.
"I think a newer, younger team and winning with that team has given him a new lease of life. I hope he can continue for a few years yet.
"It will be about how long he wants to keep doing it. But certainly there is time on his side, so there is no reason he couldn't [go past Tendulkar] if his heart is still in it and his will to do it is still there."
Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Kumar Sangakkara, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Mahela Jayawardene, Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Sunil Gavaskar are the only other cricketers to reach the 10,000-run mark.
Barney Corkhill
