From his dizzy height, Joe Root could watch some of the greatest batsmen of all time beneath him. En route his flawless hundred in Old Trafford, he passed Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid, three giants of the game. Other outlines are flickering in the distance, Alastair Cook and Brian Lara, Kumar Sangakkara and Sunil Gavaskar, names and numbers cutting across eras. When he looked upwards, which he had done all through his career, he could see the gleaming silhouette of Sachin Tendulkar. But for a shocking plummet of form, he would surpass the loftiest peak of all and sit atop Test cricket’s run-piling chart.
A question beckons. Does the statistical mountain he has etched correspond to the greatness he wields? It’s a fundamental question that has baffled, fascinated and intrigued cricketers, chroniclers and audiences for ages. It cannot be delinked from individual tastes, choices, context, and milieu. This much is certain—Root is already one of England’s all-time greats, a great of his era, and one could potentially end up as one of the greatest of all time, nudging shoulders with Lara and Tendulkar, Gavaskar and Kallis.
His career can be neatly divided into three halves. The gifted, loved and consistent batsman in the first six years (2012-2018), the tormented figurehead in the next three (2018-2021), when the gift of scoring a hundred forsook him (four in 60 innings), before, just after the pandemic, he transformed to a prolific, century-guzzling colossus. Twenty-one of his 37 hundreds were wrought in this time frame. The average since has been 58.06.
Unsurprisingly in these years, his bat has danced with joy and freedom. In the first fruitful face, he adhered to the classical notes, punishing the loose balls and blocking the good ones. In the third period, his batting has flashed a streak of assertiveness.
From steady to dominating player
A steady player became a dominating one. In these years, he has batted with a strike rate of 64.7, the crescendo being 2023, when he struck at 76. It was not so much about the Bazball ethos and existential motivation as it was about a batsman in his zen, realising the outer reaches of his potential. The 2014 version—the year he averaged 97 and formed the Fab Four with Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson and Steve Smith—stroked gorgeous back-foot punches, cover drives, and late cuts. The 2023 upgrade had these all plus reverse scoops, sweeps and ramps, like a choirboy suddenly turning into a bass guitarist, but retaining the tidy gracefulness of his craft.
Among the Fab Four, only three remain, he is arguably the most prolific player of spin bowling. He averages 57.45 in Asia, he nailed three hundreds in India, including a glorious match-winning double hundred in Chennai. He subdued the best spinner of his time, Ravi Ashwin, averaging 62.4 against him. He prospered in South Africa (average of 60 but a lone hundred to show), and New Zealand (53.47). His 110 in Johannesburg, against a searing hot Kagiso Rabada, was one of the two scores past 50 in all four innings. Bangladesh was an aberration (he aggregates 24) but the sample size is merely four innings to call it a genuine quicksand.
The one country where he has unquestionably struggled is Australia. He is yet to compile a hundred in 27 innings spread across three tours. He averages 35.68 and has struggled against the trifecta of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. Cummins has devoured him 11 times for a lowly average of 26.0, Starc on eight instances (43) and Hazlewood 10 (31.4). Similarly successful has been Jasprit Bumrah. Even though he averages nearly 60 against India and plundered them more than any other team, he has blasted him 11 times. In comparison, Australia has been one of Kohli’s favourite haunts (six hundreds at 54.08). Kolhi and Root have traversed the opposite paths. Kohli’s best years (2017 to 2020) were Root’s worst, and Kohli’s worst (2020 to 2023), were Root’s best.
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Subduing bowlers
Great batsmen subdue the great bowlers of their era too. Root has not quite dominated the best seamers of his era, even though he did tame the wiliest spinners of his time (scored 54.9 runs for each of his nine dismissals to Nathan Lyon). At 34, fitness issues not plaguing him, he still has the opportunity to tick the unticked box of his. To an extent, he has neutered Bumrah this series, but on the flattest decks in England in recent times. The opportunity to conquer Australia looms later this year. This could be the fourth chapter of his career—the ascent from one of the greats of his time to an all-time great. In the larger scheme, scaling Mount Tendulkar or the pantheon of greats would just be part of the journey rather than the destination.
Only 2512 runs separate him and Tendulkar. It could be the yield of two fine seasons for Root. In three of the last four completed seasons, he had amassed 1000-plus runs (twice in excess of 1500). So the peak is not impossible. The altitude would not faze him. For all his career, he had only looked upwards. And his greatness is a study in progress.
