Cook set to break Tendulkar's record

England captain Alastair Cook will be eyeing a place in history when his side's three-Test series with Sri Lanka begins in Leeds on May 19.

Cook boasts 9,964 runs and is just 36 runs short of completing 10,000 runs in Test cricket.

More notably, the 31-year old can eclipse master blaster Sachin Tendulkar’s record of being the youngest to reach the 10,000-run feat. 

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 at Headingley, 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.