Joe Root’s 150 against India at Old Trafford nudged him past Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting and into second place on the all-time Test run chart. The England batter now owns 13,409 runs, 2,512 shy of Sachin Tendulkar’s seemingly unreachable 15,921.
“When you look at the names there on that list, they are all people that, as a kid growing up, that’s who I would try to be in the garden, on the street, on the driveway, at my local club,” Root told Sky Sports. “One day I’d try to be Ricky Ponting, the next I’d try to be Kumar Sangakkara or Brian Lara.”
He smiled, then added: “I’d pretend that I was in different parts of the world, scoring Test-match hundreds. Even just to be mentioned in the same sentence as these guys is a bit of a pinch-yourself moment. It is pretty cool, yeah.”
The 33-year-old is wary of turning a personal milestone into a distraction. “It’s not something that I will focus on,” he told the BBC. “Those sorts of things should look after themselves. The focus has to be about winning games.”
Root faced Tendulkar only once—his debut Test in Nagpur back in 2012—yet he now sits closer to the Indian great than anyone before him. “He made his Test debut before I was born. To be playing on the same ground as him and to get the chance to play against him was incredibly cool. [He was] someone you grew up watching, admiring, trying to learn from… To get to play in a series where he was still playing was really quite a memorable experience that I’ll never forget.”
The single that took Root beyond Ponting on Friday drew an immediate standing ovation, although the man himself barely paused. “I can’t avoid it,” he joked. “They [the numbers] are everywhere, aren’t they? But you try to put it out of your mind. It is easy to get caught up in this stuff… You’re not doing your job if you’re concentrating on yourself.”
Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar suggested during television commentary that Root has a “serious chance” of toppling Tendulkar if his body holds up. Ollie Pope echoed the sentiment, saying in the dressing-room debrief that Root “can chase down Tendulkar” if England’s busy calendar and Root’s fitness co-operate.
Since the start of the Covid-19 period Root has averaged 55.33, collecting 21 of his 38 Test centuries. The forced break in 2020, he says, allowed a hard reset. He spent the downtime poring over footage, reassessing his initial movement and balance at the crease, and returned with a slightly more open stance that has kept him on line against pace and spin alike.
“It’s something that I’ll look back on at the end of my career rather than right now… It was a really cool day, something I’ll try to take in properly and appreciate what I’ve achieved, but there’s so much important cricket still to be playing within this series, within this game, and obviously in the next little while, so that’s the main focus right now.”
England resume on the fourth morning 174 runs ahead, with Root unbeaten and eyeing a statement victory that would seal the series. Rewriting record books may follow in due course, yet the Yorkshireman’s immediate concern is simpler: bat long, give his bowlers room to work, and leave Old Trafford with a win.
