Alastair Cook has put his name in the history books after becoming the first England cricketer to reach 10,000 Test runs.

The Essex batsman reached the milestone shortly after going into bat for a second innings at Chester-Le-Street in the second Test against Sri Lanka on Monday.

Cook arrived at the crease knowing that he required just five more runs to reach the feat, and he did so with a four after nudging the ball through square-leg to the boundary.

10,000 Test runs for Alastair Cook #history pic.twitter.com/EDpuazRpYv

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) May 30, 2016

The England skipper is only the 12th cricketer to reach the milestone, and he is now the youngest at 31 years and 157 days old.

Cook has also claimed 10,000 Test runs quicker than 11 of his peers having racked up the figure 10 years and 90 days after his debut.

Sachin 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.

Written by
Danielle Joynson