Joe Root became just the second England batter to score 10,000 Test runs.© AFP
Joe Root became just the second England batter to score 10,000 Test runs during a match-winning hundred against New Zealand at Lord’s on Sunday. The 31-year-old’s typically composed 115 not out took England, who had been faltering at 69 for four, to a target of 277 and a five-wicket victory over the reigning World Test Championship winners with more than a day to spare. Root is often considered among modern cricket’s “Big Four” batters together with Australia’s Steve Smith, India’s Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson, the current captain of New Zealand.
Root succeeded Alastair Cook — the only other England batter to have scored more than 10,000 Test runs — as captain in 2017. Root went on to lead England in more Tests (64) and achieved more wins (27) than any previous skipper. Ben Stokes has succeeded Root in the captain’s role. Former England cricket team skipper Michael Vaughan has now said that Root is capable of surpassing Sachin Tendulkar’s world record of 15921 runs in Tests.
In a column for ‘The Telegraph’ titled, “Joe Root is England’s best ever – now Sachin Tendulkar should watch out”, Vaughan wrote: “For me Joe Root stands alongside Graham Gooch as England’s greatest batsmen and the way he is going he could surpass Sachin Tendulkar’s record for the most Test runs.
“He is still 6,000 short of Sachin’s total but he is only 31 and if James Anderson can play until he is 40 then I think Joe can too. He loves batting that much. He is driven. He is a cricket badger. You have to have it in you to wake up every morning and think about batting.”
Root’s current Test batting average is a fraction under 50, the mark of an all-time great, with his tally of 26 hundreds at this level exceeded for England only by the retired Cook’s 33.
And Sunday’s innings suggest there are plenty more runs to come, with Root now freed from what he said afterwards had become a “very unhealthy relationship” with the England captaincy.
Promoted
“It got to the stage where it was time for someone else to lead that but I can try and influence it (England’s results) in a different role, in a different way,” he said.
(With AFP inputs)
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