Joe Root overtakes Ricky Ponting to become leading Test run-scorer on home soil

England captain Joe Root overtook Ricky Ponting to become the highest run-scorer in Test cricket on home soil on Day 3 of the second Test against Pakistan in London on August 30, 2026. The achievement moved Root ahead of Ponting on the list of most Test runs scored at home.

Root began the match needing 13 runs to pass Ponting's tally of 7,578 Test runs accumulated in Australia. He was dismissed for four in England's first innings and in the second made 24 off 37 balls, taking his total in home Tests to 7,591. The milestone came in Root's 89th Test in England.

Ponting's 7,578 runs came across 92 Tests in Australia; Sachin Tendulkar sits third on the home-Test list with 7,216 runs in 94 Tests in India. Mahela Jayawardene and Jacques Kallis are also listed among the leading run-scorers on home soil.

The larger benchmark remains Tendulkar's overall Test total of 15,921 runs, a mark Root is 1,700 runs shy of. Root’s recent figures leave him some distance from challenging that career aggregate.

Root's home-Test record was compiled amid a lean spell in England's 2026 home season, during which he has gone 10 innings without a century; his best score this season is 77, made in the second Test against New Zealand at The Oval. In the second innings against Pakistan he made 24 before Mohammad Ali trapped him leg before wicket with the third delivery of the 17th over.

Across international matches on English soil, Root has 11,928 runs in 260 innings across 199 matches and requires 72 more runs to reach 12,000 international runs at home, which would make him only the sixth batter to reach that mark and the first from England. Tendulkar holds the corresponding domestic international-run record with 14,192 runs in 313 innings across 258 matches in India.

The tally was passed at Lord's. Root still has a long way to go before he can challenge Tendulkar's overall Test record.