Former English cricketer Michael Vaughan on Monday (6th June) lavished rich praise on Joe Root, calling him ‘England’s best ever batter’. He believes that the right-hander can surpass Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most Test runs as he has lot of cricket left in him.
Root has been in the form of his life. It’s fair to say that the right-hander has single-handedly carried the England's batting line-up of late. Not only is he scoring truckloads for runs, but the former English skipper has also been achieving various milestones as well.
In England’s recent encounter against New Zealand in the first match of the three-Test series at Lord’s, Root became only the second Englishman after Sir Alastair Cook to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket. He achieved the feat in his 118th match and is now placed 14th on the list of the highest run-scorer in Tests.
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Root also became the first batter in the history of the game to get to the milestone in the first 10 years of his international career. With the pace he is scoring funs, he can easily surpass Tendulkar’s tally of 15,921 runs and become the highest run-getter in the longest format of the game.
Following his heroics, many fans and pundits have backed the 31-year-old to surpass Tendulkar and the latest to join the bandwagon is Vaughan.
Writing in his column for the Telegraph, Michael Vaughan labelled Root as England’s best ever batter. He highlighted that Sachin Tendulkar should watch out now as the former English skipper can surpass his record of most Test runs.
"Joe Root is England's best ever - now Sachin Tendulkar should watch out. For me Joe Root stands alongside Graham Gooch as England's greatest batsmen and the way he is going he could surpass Sachin Tendulkar's record for the most Test runs,” Michael Vaughan said.
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Vaughan feels that although Root, 31, is 6000 runs short of Tendulkar’s tally, he’s got 10 years of cricket in him. He added that the right-hander is a ‘cricket badger’ and thinks about cricket all the time.
“He is still 6,000 short of Sachin's total but he is only 31 and if James Anderson can play until he is 40 then I think Joe can too. He loves batting that much. He is driven. He is a cricket badger. You have to have it in you to wake up every morning and think about batting,” he said.
Talking about the first Test between England and New Zealand, Root scored his 26th ton and remained unbeaten on 115 runs to take his side home while chasing the target of 277 runs.
(The Telegraph inputs)
