'Joe Root is the most complete batsman in all three forms' - Alastair Cook

Former England Test skipper Joe Root was phenomenal with the bat and returned to his dominant batting ways. On Sunday, during the Lord's Test against New Zealand, he slammed an unbeaten 115 to help England win by five wickets and go up 1-0 in the three-Test series. He also struck his 10,000th Test run during this knock, right after he scored his 26th Test century. As a result, he became only the 14th batter in world cricket to enter the 10k club and just the second Englishman after former England Test skipper Alastair Cook. Meanwhile, the latter was all-praise for the former and hailed him as the complete batter across formats.

Talking to BBC Sport, Cook stated, "He is a pleasure to watch, the most complete England batsman I have seen. The person who could play the most incredible innings was Kevin Pietersen, but it's Root for the most complete batsmen in all three forms. His consistency is incredible. He was an outstanding player of spin, as good as anyone. That was obvious to see, even at that young age. He was ready to play international cricket. You knew he could handle the occasion."

ALSO READ: 'After 2 months of IPL?' - Ganguly trolled for suggesting to 'keep Test format the pinnacle'

"Barring injury, he'll [Root] go miles past my record. He is so hard to tie down. I had to grind my way to 30. It always took me what felt like two hours. Because Joe has got so many low-risk scoring options, pretty much through 360 degrees, he will often get to 30 off 40 balls. I would never have said I would finish at 33, but the time felt right for me. The mental strain I felt from scoring runs took a toll on me. I'm not saying it's easy for him, but he doesn't seem to have that problem," concluded Cook.