Joe Root can become Test cricket's greatest runscorer. And that record would never be beaten

New York Times

3 days ago

He stood, a little self-consciously, as Old Trafford rose to him before eventually raising a thumb to his captain and a hand in acknowledgment of the warm and prolonged ovation.
Joe Root had just played one of his trademark shots, a push through backward point off the hapless Indian debutant Anshul Kamboj, for the run that took his score to 120 and a very special piece of cricket history.
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It was the single that lifted this modest son of Sheffield to the grand total of 13,379 runs in 157 Test matches for England over 13 years of high achievement since he made his debut as a fresh faced and cheeky young batter against India in Nagpur.
And, as everyone in this famous old ground knew, it was the single that took Root past Ricky Ponting and into second place in the list of Test cricket's all-time leading runscorers.
How apt that the great former Australian captain should be here to see Root go past him after hot footing it from the slightly less illustrious stage of Major League Cricket in the United States to commentate for UK broadcaster Sky Sports on the last two Tests of this series.
And how fitting, too, that Root's latest and greatest achievement should come in the newly named Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy as it is only India's little master Sachin Tendulkar who stands above him now.
Ponting was on commentary for the big moment and was quick to congratulate Root on going past him. He also offered a perfect appraisal of the qualities that have made this most unassuming of characters one of the greatest batters of all time.
"He's just a classical Test match batsman," Ponting told Sky. "He's calm, he eliminates mistakes, he hits the ball where it's supposed to go.
"Joe stands upright, which is the modern way, but his back foot punch, his cover drives, the way he hits the ball down the ground, are all textbook and, like all the great players, he finds a way through experience to not make mistakes.
"He puts a high price on his wicket, as all great players do, but to see him over the last five or six years, when he's really learnt his Test game, has been a pleasure to watch."
It was not only Ponting who Root surpassed on a day when England made big strides towards the fourth Test victory that would clinch the series for them with a game to play.
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He started the third day in fifth place on that list of the greatest Test batters but was soon to pass, when he reached 31, both India's Rahul Dravid and South Africa's Jacques Kallis, barely reacting to the applause that greeted his accession.
Root knew there was still considerable work to do and it was only when he reached what was his 38th Test hundred and, remarkably, his 12th against India that he displayed his emotions and raised both his bat and arms high towards the Manchester sky.
Passing Ponting, the scourge of many an England team past, when he added 20 more to his latest three-figure score was merely a sidenote to him as Root joined with his captain Ben Stokes in trying to bat India completely out of this game and series.
It seemed as though he would go on and on but, after losing Stokes temporarily with cramp, Root was forced into his first mistake by Ravindra Jadeja with a delivery that turned sharply and saw him stumped for 150 and now 13,409 Test runs.
He left, limping slightly – and with a hint of cramp himself – after treading on the ball that had dismissed him, to another huge ovation but crucially with his job done. England closed on 544 for seven, 186 ahead of an India side who selected badly for this match and have bowled even worse.
For Root it is all about the team, always has been, which is why he has returned to the ranks so successfully since relinquishing the England captaincy three years ago at one of the few low points of his magnificent career.
There was no sulking after the gloomy last vestiges of a leadership reign that ended with only one win in his last 17 Tests in charge and England in desperate need of the inspiration and new approach that Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum brought.
It says everything about Root that he immediately bought into 'Bazball' as an ex-captain and senior professional, even trying to adapt the batting that had brought him so much success by adding ramps and scoops to his favoured punched drives and sweeps.
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Only when he attracted rare criticism for an injudicious ramp that led to his dismissal at a crucial time of the third Test and the series against India in Rajkot last year did he decide to park 'Bazball' and go back to the busy and still positive style that had served him so well.
It was the right decision for Root and England. He was certainly quick scoring and entertaining enough without the funkiness and has climbed to an even higher level under Stokes, making hundred after hundred when once he would struggle to convert 50s.
So understated a character is Root that it is easy to under-estimate the scale of his achievements, but they truly are remarkable. That 38th ton takes him level with Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, with only Tendulkar, Kallis and Ponting having scored more.
Only Don Bradman (19 v England) and Sunil Gavaskar (13 v West Indies) have scored more Test centuries against a single opponent than Root's 12 against India, a testament to his particular ability against spin bowling and the unique demands of the sub-continent.
Root shows no signs of slowing down or any hint of decline. He has struggled at times with a long standing back condition but is it not bad enough to seriously affect his batting nor his more than useful off-spin bowling and fielding that has seen him in this series become Test cricket's most prolific catcher without gloves.
He still looks fresh faced at 34 and still has the same insatiable hunger for runs and boyish enthusiasm for batting that England identified long before they gave him that Test debut at the end of the triumphant 2012 tour of India.
Ollie Pope, who made 71, cited Root's "hunger and his drive" when asked what qualities marked him out as special. "You look at all the batters here and everyone's picked up something from Joe, not necessarily cricket but with how he goes about himself and his training," he told Sky. |His hunger for it is awesome and he's an annoyingly good bloke."
There is little Root has not achieved but Ponting will know Root has never scored a Test century in Australia, something he has every chance of putting right this winter.
And there really is no reason why this Peter Pan like figure should not go on and surpass Tendulkar, even though he is still 2,512 runs adrift of him.
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Yes, Root will need to maintain his standards, and stay injury-free, but England have another 22 Tests scheduled between now and the end of the 2027 Ashes.
If Root, who would then be 36, is still scoring runs as consistently as he is now he could go past Tendulkar in 2028. And if he does, with the Test calendar shrinking, it is almost certain no-one would ever eclipse him.
Joe Root of Sheffield Collegiate, Yorkshire and England, would be the leading runscorer in Test cricket for as long as the great old game survives — and that really would be worth acknowledging.
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