Joe Root, captain of the English Cricket Team, went ahead to secure another record to his name before concluding the opening day of the Boxing Day Test of Ashes. The 30-year-old registered himself as the highest-scoring captain in a calendar year in the Test format.

The record was previously held by Graeme Smith, the former captain of South Africa.

Root cleared the previous record, which was set at 1,656 runs, by a thin margin on Sunday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and brought his tally to 1,680. 

The English skipper is also high up on the record list of scoring most runs in a calendar year and is catching up to Sir Vivian Richards — who scored 1,710 runs in 1976 for West Indies– and Mohammad Yousuf — who made 1,788 runs in 2006 for Pakistan, according to reports from NDTV.

A loose shot outside off stump by Root, a questionable cut by Ben Stokes, and a wild heave by Jos Buttler will attract heavy attention from England’s press after another difficult day for the tourists, who trail two-nil in the five-match series.

Australia claimed another three wickets in the middle session, dismissing the dangerous duo of Root and Stokes (25). The departure of Buttler for three, after aiming a wild slog to deep mid-wicket off the bowling of Lyon in the last over before tea, summed up England’s struggles against Australia’s disciplined bowling.

World number two ranked batsman Root added to his England’s woes outside off stump by offering a catch to wicketkeeper Alex Carey off the bowling of Mitchell Starc at 82-4.

Rain delayed the start of play for 30 minutes before Pat Cummins ripped through England’s top order on his return to the team after being ruled out for the second test at Adelaide due to being a close contact of a positive COVID case.

(With AP inputs)