England’s star batter Joe Root has been on a record-breaking spree in recent times. He went past as many as three legends on the all-time Test batting list during his 150-run knock in the recently held Manchester Test against India.
After going past Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis before Lunch on Day 3, Root surpassed Ricky Ponting before Tea on the same day to become the second-highest run scorer in the longest format.
Root celebrated the milestone day by getting to his 38th Test hundred, drawing level with Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara on the all-time list of Test batters with most three-figure scores.
When Root scored his 120th run, he moved to No. 2 in the list of batters with most Test runs, taking his tally past Ponting's 13,378. Now, the only one batter with more Test runs than English talisman is the Indian icon Sachin Tendulkar, who has 15,921 runs to his credit from 200 matches.
Meanwhile, England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler has mentioned that Joe Root isn’t actively chasing Tendulkar’s Test runs record, despite climbing to second on the all-time list.
Currently, Root has 13,409 Test runs to his name and needs 2512 more runs to reach the summit.
“He’s not hunting down Sachin Tendulkar because that’s definitely not the way he plays his cricket or how he sees it,” Buttler said while speaking on his YouTube channel For the Love of Cricket.
“But he is number two on an incredibly elite list, with what seems like—if he stays fit—quite an attainable kind of thing, which is absolutely mind-blowing.
“He has got 21 hundreds since COVID. He is obviously in the form of his life and it is awesome to watch,” he added.
Former England pacer and co-host of the podcast, Stuart Broad, asked Buttler: “Do you sit there and think it’s a given that he is going to do it? He is 34, going on 35. Not many players have never had a loss of form or an injury problem, but he has just always been fit and scoring runs. So is there any part of you that thinks ‘he might not get there’?”
To which, Buttler replied: “It might just be a bit more in his favour. Hunger is never an issue I see with Root. He isn’t going to wake up in 2-3 years and think he doesn’t have the love for batting or playing for England. He has just been playing so well, even during that period when England won one game in 17 and he was captain.”
“But he just doesn’t see it like that at all. Which I think is the great thing about him. He just loves playing and winning matches. So it’s going to be pretty cool to watch whether he stays at No. 2 or scales that Everest and goes to No. 1.”
Joe Root and his England teammates will now face India in the fifth and final Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, set to begin on July 31 at The Oval.
