Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has admitted that there is a possibility of Joe Root breaking Sachin Tendulkar's record of most runs in Test cricket, but stressed that it is very difficult to break the "insurmountable" record.
With 10191 runs, Root recently breached the 10000-run mark in Test cricket, and became the 14th player overall to achieve the feat. Now, England's star batter has a very good chance of breaking Tendulkar's record of most Test runs. The Master Blaster is leading the chart with 15921 runs followed by Ricky Ponting (13378 runs), Jacques Kallis (13,289 runs), and Rahul Dravid (13,288 runs).
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Sunil Gavaskar told India Today: “That is an insurmountable record because we are talking about another almost 6000 runs, which means you would have to score about 1000 runs or 800 runs over the next 8 years for you to get there. Joe Root has got age on his side (31 years old). He certainly can (break the record) if he can maintain that enthusiasm and go on.”
He continued, “Alastair Cook retired but he is still playing first-class cricket. Sometimes, if you are playing around the clock, your form can also drop because there is mental tiredness that comes in. Root is scoring 150+ scores but it can take a toll on him, mentally and physically.”
Gavaskar said that anything is possible in the game while citing the examples of New Zealand legend Richard Hadlee (431 Test wickets) and West Indies great Courtney Walsh's (519 Test wickets) records that were broken.
The legendary batter signed off by saying, “Anything is possible in the game. We first thought Richard Hadlee's 431 wouldn't break, but that was overtaken. Then we thought of Courtney Walsh's 519... So, I mean look where we are going. (It is) not impossible, but very very difficult.”