Root: Eng's elegant Test record-breaker

Express Tribune

a day ago

England's Joe Root is second on the list of all-time Test run-scorers. Photo: AFP
With a single behind point Joe Root climbed above Ricky Ponting to become the second-highest run-scorer in Test history, underlining his status as a giant of the sport.
The former England captain overtook Ponting's tally of 13,378 runs when he reached 120 in the fourth Test against India at Old Trafford on Friday.
Earlier in the day he had glided past India's Rahul Dravid and South Africa's Jacques Kallis and there is now just one man above him — Sachin Tendulkar.
The Indian great retired in 2013 with 15,921 Test runs to his name but few would bet against the voracious Root dislodging him.
"Magnificent from Root, this is a great moment in history," former Australia captain Ponting said on Sky Sports as the Manchester crowd stood to applaud and chant the Yorkshireman's name.
"The way his career his gone, there is absolutely no reason why he will not go past Tendulkar."
The elegant Root, 34, is a throwback to a different era of batting, an orthodox "touch" player who does not need to smash the ball around to score quickly.
Former England captain Alastair Cook hailed him as "England's greatest" and a "genius" when he surpassed his own record tally of 33 Test hundreds for England last year.
Another former skipper, Nasser Hussain, has described him as "England's generational talent" with the bat.
Root played for the same Sheffield Collegiate club as Michael Vaughan, following the ex-England captain into the Yorkshire first team.
He made just 14 on his low-key first-class debut against a Loughborough University team in 2010 but after two encouraging seasons with Yorkshire he was picked to tour India in 2012.
England spinner Graeme Swann likened the baby-faced batsman to a team mascot but Root seized his chance when it came, making a patient 73 from 229 balls in the final Test in Nagpur.
His rise continued with a first Test hundred the following year against New Zealand at his Headingley home ground, before a maiden Ashes century at Lord's two months later.
There was a dip in Australia, where Root has still to score a Test century, as he lost form during England's 2013/14 Ashes whitewash.
Root, dropped for the fifth Test in Sydney, responded in style back on home soil with a double hundred against Sri Lanka at Lord's followed by two centuries against India.
Runs have flowed consistently for the Yorkshireman despite concerns at times, now largely forgotten, over his conversion rate — the number of times he went on to score hundreds after reaching fifty.
'Big four'
Root is in an elite bracket as a member of the modern game's "Big Four" batsmen alongside Australia's Steve Smith, India's Virat Kohli, now retired from Test cricket, and New Zealand's Kane Williamson.
The Yorkshireman, who has also taken 73 Test wickets with his spin bowling, succeeded Cook -- the only other England batsman to have scored 10,000 Test runs — as captain in 2017.
He went on to lead England in more Tests (64) and achieve more wins (27) than any previous skipper but found himself in charge of a struggling team.
He maintained his own standards with the bat during his time at the helm, most strikingly in 2021, when he scored 1,708 runs at an average of 61 and was named Test Cricketer of the Year.
Root's tenure as skipper ended in disappointment in April 2022 following a run of just one win from 17 matches, with Ben Stokes taking charge.
The former skipper has proved indispensable under Stokes, scoring 13 of his Test hundreds after being freed from the burden of captaincy.
Root has occasionally become unstuck while flirting with a more risky style in the ultra-attacking "Bazball" era under Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.
But he has largely played his own game, with a rare talent to keep the scoreboard ticking over by playing in a classical, relatively risk-free style.
Root's Test batting average is more than 50, the mark of an all-time great, and he remains a mainstay of England's one-day team.
He has a long way to go to catch Tendulkar but few would doubt his hunger and ability to finish his career right at the top.
"It has been a privilege to watch him knock off those milestones," former England skipper Michael Atherton said on Sky. "It has also been a privilege to see his career unfold." AFP