Cook set to break Tendulkar's record in 1st Test vs Sri Lanka

England captain Alastair Cook is set to break legendary batsman Sachin’s Tendulkar's record and become the youngest batsman in the history of the game to score 10,000 Test runs.

Cook is just 36 runs shy of reaching the milestone. Once he gets there, he will also become the first English batsman to achieve the feat.

He is targeting the mark in England's first Test against Sri Lanka, which, gets underway at Headingley on Thursday.

Tendulkar's 10,000th Test run came against Pakistan, in Kolkata in March 2005, a little more than a month before his 32nd birthday. 

Cook, meanwhile, turned 31 on Christmas Day last year, meaning if he scores the 36 runs required in the opening Test against the visiting Sri Lankans, he would have reached the 10,000 barrier five months younger than India’s batting legend.

While Cook looks likely to become the youngest man to 10,000 Test runs, he won't be the fastest to reach the milestone in terms of innings played.

That record is currently split three ways by Tendulkar and his contemporary Brian Lara, as well as Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara, who each needed 195 innings. 

Australia's Ricky Ponting trails the trio by a single innings, at 196.

Cook, with 226 innings in Test cricket already to his name, is set to slot in between Jacques Kallis (217 inns) and Allan Border (235) in ninth position on what would become a 12-man 10,000-run club.