Joe Root’s 248-ball 150 in the fourth Test in Manchester last week proved to be a landmark innings. The 34-year-old went past each of Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, and Ricky Ponting to become the second-highest runscorer in Test cricket history. And while he remains in good form and has a few good years left in his Test career, his former teammate, Jos Buttler, does not believe the Yorkshire batter will be aiming to surpass Sachin Tendulkar to take the top spot on that elite list.
In his 286th Test match innings last week, Root reached 13,409 runs, leaving him 2512 runs behind Tendulkar’s haul of 15,921. Buttler believes that the landmark is still attainable for his former teammate, but he does not think the record will be on his mind while he bats.
“He’s not hunting down Sachin Tendulkar because that’s definitely not the way he plays his cricket or how he sees it,” Butler said 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 mindblowing.”
“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 fast bowler and co-host of the recently-launched podcast, Stuart Broad, posed a question to Buttler: “Do you sit there and think it’s a given that he is going to do it? He is 34, going on to 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 the former England ODI captain backed his former teammate. “It might just be a bit more in his favour,” Buttler said. “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.”
