English batter Joe Root has been the talk of the cricketing world recently; the buzz has been on him since Aussie veteran cricketer Ricky Ponting made a remark over Joe Root probably being the cricketer who can level up with Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most test runs, which now stands at 15921 runs.
Ponting remarked in an interview with the ICC that Joe Root is the batter he considers can achieve this remarkable feat. With the form, Root is in, and with his 33-year-old age, he has been convincing enough for Ponting that if the English cricketer plays Tests for the next 5 years, then his 3500 runs seem very accessible.
Root has been recently seen in the home series against Sri Lanka, where he continues his stunning form. Joe Root was seen again holding to his sublime form, as after his first half-century that he scored at Old Trafford, he scored two stunning hundreds at Lord’s in the second game.
England was seen in a grieving situation; in the first innings at Lord’s, that was when Joe Root claimed his 33rd Test century, which helped him level the most hundreds with Alastair Cook; he took over the former skipper with now most hundreds for England.
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Joe Root has scored 143 and 103 runs in the two innings, while the batter is just less than 100 runs to surpass the former English skipper Alastair Cook as their highest run-getter in the format. He is anyway England’s all-time highest run-getter with all formats together.
Root was asked about how determined he is to break Sachin’s record, to which he answered his main focus lies on scoring runs and letting his team win a test match; he doesn’t have a hundred or Sachin’s record in mind whenever he comes into bat. The answer won hearts over the internet as fans lauded him for this.
Root is now 12377 runs in test cricket, the highest among active cricketers and the seventh highest in history; he is 24 runs and 96 runs behind Kumara Sangakara and Alastair Cook on the list, which will take him to the 5th position in the all-time list.
Also, he stands 1001 runs behind the second-highest run-getter, Australian veteran Ricky Ponting with 13378 runs. With Root’s conversion rate of scoring consistent 100s, he is undoubtedly one of those players who can surely keep the target of breaking Sachin’s record for most Test hundreds (51), if not his record of most runs.
Root now has 34 hundred and would need 18 hundred to break the record, which seems ok after he scored 17 hundred in the last 3 years of his playing. Earlier last year in the World Cup, Indian great Virat Kohli broke Sachin’s record for most ODI hundreds, and now the little master’s test record seems to be under threat.