3 min readUpdated: May 22, 2026 08:13 PM IST
Joe Root, the second highest Test run-getter at 13,943, who is only behind India legend Sachin Tendulkar who has 15,921 runs, lavished praise on the Little Master in the recent interview, saying that to be in the same conversation with the icon was enough for him.
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 Brian Lara and Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar and Jacques Kallis.
“It’s remarkable what Sachin Tendulkar achieved in the game. You have to believe me when I say that to even be in the conversation with him is enough for me. The guy made his Test debut before I was born and played in my Test debut! His longevity in itself is remarkable and then you look at the runs he got in Test cricket… but not only that, he’s got 50 ODI hundreds, too. All the while he was the most famous man in India. Serious, serious player,” he said in an interview with The Athletic.
Root’s 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.
He also talked about the recent disappointing Ashes series which England lost 4-1 to Australia.
“Any series you don’t win, you’re going to be disappointed and you’re going to try and find areas where you could have been better,” he said.
“The one thing that stands out and frustrates me the most is that, you know, the coaches have taken and worn a lot of the negativity around what happened this winter and, as players, we should be the ones taking the responsibility for how we performed. We’re the ones out there, we’re the ones making the decisions and playing the game and we’re the ones who underperformed. That’s on us. They shouldn’t be the ones shouldering that,” he added.
