While England Batsman Joe Root scored his 38th Test century on the third day of the Manchester Test against India on Friday, the 34-year-old also surpassed Ricky Ponting (13,378 runs), Jacques Kallis (13,289 runs) and Rahul Dravid (13,288 runs) in the list of leading run-scorers in Test cricket. The England batsman is now only 2512 runs behind Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 15,921 runs. While Tendulkar made the record playing 200 Tests, Root has become the second-highest run scorer in Tests with a total of 13,409 runs in 157 Tests, and former Australian captain Ricky Ponting believes he sees no reason why Root cannot break Tendulkar’s record.
“Magnificent from Joe Root. This is a great moment in history. The way his career has gone, there is absolutely no reason why he will not go past Tendulkar. He is elegant, stylish, hungry. He has made it clear he is not one for stats and you are not when you are playing, but when you finish you can be proud of what you have achieved,” Ponting told Sky Sports.
Root scored his second century in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy on Friday. He had scored his first century of the series at Lord’s earlier in the series and Friday’s hundred meant that he matched Kumar Sangakarra’s mark of 38 Test centuries with only Sachin Tendulkar (51), Ricky Ponting (45) and Jacques Kallis (41) ahead of him in terms of number of Test centuries. Friday’s hundred was also Root’s 12 Test century against India and the England batsman also broke Steve Smith’s earlier record of most Test centuries against India (11). Root’s former team-mate, Stuart Broad too, sees the England batsman breaking further records in Test cricket. “He played beautifully today to go past Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting [and become the second-highest run-scorer in Test cricket], bringing up another hundred that he will hope wins the game. I was out for dinner with him last night and he was incredibly relaxed, enjoying his cricket, and there are certainly no signs of him stopping. He has a huge hunger for scoring runs,” Broad told Sky Sports.
Earlier, former England captain Michael Atherton had also out his faith into Root to break Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 15,921 runs. “Wherever Joe Root finishes, say, for example, he went past Sachin. I’m not so sure anybody will go past that just because of the nature of the way the game is going. People will play fewer Test matches, I would imagine, in the years to come,” Atherton had said on commentary on the second day of the Manchester Test.
