Joe makes history on momentous day for the Root family

Despite tiredness, Root went past 150 with a glorious cover drive and Brook brought up the 200 stand with an equally flowing shot through the off side. England targeted the spinners. Leggie Abrar Ahmed went for 50 off his first seven overs and Root was so confident he even took guard as a left-hander against him. Naseem Shah tried to engage Root in some verbals while Shaheen Shah Afridi bounced Brook but was forearm smashed for two straight fours. A switch of bails Stuart Broad-style brought an lbw shout against Root on 168 given not out and upheld on review.

Crawley played sumptuously for his 78 but for the sixth time since his Ashes hundred at Old Trafford he fell in the 70s. Duckett shrugged off a dislocated left thumb to cream 84 off 74 balls before getting out with a hundred beckoning.

“What’s the matter? Don’t you like making hundreds?” Boycott’s reaction to giving away centuries must have been ringing in the ears of the two Yorkshiremen. Root and Brook did not make the same mistakes. It is what sets apart the best from the rest.

Root: ‘Many more runs to get’

Joe Root said he has “plenty more runs” left in him after becoming England’s highest Test run scorer with a brilliant century in Multan while the man he overtook, Sir Alastair Cook, tipped him to go on and set a new world record for Test runs.

Root passed Cook as England’s highest Test runs scorer when he reached 71 not out in Multan to bring up his 12,473rd career run.

“I’m obviously proud but it still feel there is plenty more left to do and many more runs to get,” Root said.

Root has batted for more than eight hours in 30C plus temperatures, battling cramp and exhaustion while facing 277 balls in his 35th Test hundred.

Afterwards he said: “I feel tired more than anything. It’s been a long day. Obviously proud, but still feel there’s plenty more left to do. I’m sure I’ll look back at it at some point and be very proud of it. I think more than anything, just the way we played today as a team is what stands out.

“Your best innings is already your next one. You’ve just got to find a way to keep contributing. For them to get 550 and us to be able to respond like that shows a lot. We’ve still got an opportunity to win the game, which is really exciting.”

Cook: He’ll overtake Tendulkar

Cook paid tribute to Root and backed him to go past Sachin Tendulkar’s all time record Test runs tally of 15,921. Root is currently fifth on the list.

“I can see him overhauling Sachin Tendulkar’s record,” Cook told the BBC. “When I retired, I thought there was every chance that my record would be broken. I thought only the effects of captaincy and the hunger that takes out of you would stop him. I think the fact that Ben Stokes has taken over the captaincy has helped Root.”

Ben Stokes also tipped Root to go on and make Test history. “Look, he is 33. He has played some 100 games in a row. I don’t know. He can easily go until he is 37, 38 or even 39. He plays all the Test matches from now until then, I don’t see why not. He is too good a player not to at least get close. I personally will be backing him to go past it,” he said.

“To score that many runs, you have to think that there has to be a bit of selfishness about the player. But everything that he has done with the bat in his hand, has always been about the team. I remember a couple of years ago, he was getting stick for converting his fifties into hundreds. I just couldn’t get my head around it. From my point of view, when I looked at how many hundreds Joe scored and how many games we have won, that’s what I look at.

“The selflessness he has is an incredible attribute for him. He always puts the team first. It’s going to take a long, long time for someone to come in and break that record.”

Boycott: He’s a nice lad and a fine batsman

“He’s a once in a generation player, Joe,” Sir Geoffrey Boycott, Telegraph columnist and former England record holder, said. “He has broken the England record and will go on to break the world Test record. He’s good enough to do that and should play enough matches to do it, too. 

“He’s been with Yorkshire since he was a kid and everyone who saw him has been saying from about the age of 15 that he was capable of doing great things for England. We knew he had what it took, that he was special. He’s a nice lad, and a fine batsman, from the very top class.

“Every generation throws up someone who is the great player. Way back there was WG Grace, Jack Hobbs, Len Hutton. I had my time, Alastair Cook had his and hopefully there’s someone very special after Joe, a young kid somewhere and I especially hope that they’re from Yorkshire!”