England captain Alastair Cook celebrates after reaching the 10,000-run mark in the second Test against Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street.
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In the landmark achievement, Cook became the first England batsman to score 10000 test runs for England.
“When I was 20 odd not out I saw Elsie running around with Layton Stokes – and then you realise how special it all is”, he said. But both will be keen to play in what looks likely to be a sell-out Test at Lord’s and England’s previous experience of resting them did not go well: Tino Best thrashed 95 from No. 11 as he and Denesh Ramdin added 143 for West Indies’ tenth wicket at Edgbaston in 2012. Sri Lanka made England fight for the first time in the series with a spirited 475 all out in the second innings.
Since making 85 and 49 on his return to the Test side in Durban, Compton has averaged only 17 – although he did hit the winning runs at Chester-le-Street.
Cook completed his milestone en route to a nine-wicket win in Durham, on the same day as England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker James Anderson took his career aggregate past 450.
Sri Lanka’s problems continued on Tuesday with the seamer Shaminda Eranga being reported for a suspect bowling action, requiring him to undergo official testing within 14 days. Cook is also the only English cricketer to have been involved in 50 Test victories.
Mathews inevitably had mixed feelings about a match in which his team showed belated improvement, and Rangana Herath took his 300th Test wicket.
“One of them will be a (shandy) top…as long as Jimmy buys me one”. “There were no demons in the wicket”.
“We’ve got to work a little harder and not get away from our game plan”, said Bayliss.
When asked that the toughest parts were in getting to the milestone, Cook pointed out a few tricky opponents, but said that the most hard aspect was getting through slumps and criticism.
His last one-day worldwide was against Sri Lanka in December 2014, and Botham said: “His best Test cricket has been when he has not been playing one-day cricket”.
The final two wickets were shared between Broad and Chris Woakes as Chandimal’s fine knock was brought to an end by a slower ball from the former and Suranga Lakmal was caught by the same man off Woakes.
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Umpire Aleem Dar left the field due to illness midway through Monday’s play. All eyes were fixed on Cook as he started third attempt this summer to get over the 10k-run milestone.
