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Can Joe Root break Sachin's Test record? Ollie Pope backs batter to chase down Tendulkar

Can Joe Root break Sachin's Test record? Ollie Pope backs batter to chase down Tendulkar

India Today3 days ago
England batter Ollie Pope has backed Joe Root to break Sachin Tendulkar's record of most Test runs. Root, who went up to the No. 2 spot in the list of most runs in the Test format on Friday, July 25, is only 2,662 runs away from the legendary Indian batter.Speaking in the post-match press conference, Pope said that while Root was not someone for milestones, he would surely be hungry to reach the summit of this elite list. Root, on Friday, batted magnificently to take England to 544/7 at the end of Day 3. Root scored 150, the 38th century of his Test career, and passed Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, and Ricky Ponting to become the 2nd highest run-getter of all time.advertisement'He's not a massive one for milestones,' Pope said with a laugh.
'But that's a cool one - second most Test runs. I'm sure he was aware.'Pope also backed the batter to go past Sachin Tendulkar.'The way he's batting, I'm sure he'll be driven to be No. 1. He's got the hunger.'| Manchester Test Day 3 Scorecard |The Manchester Test match against India was the 157th of Root's career. This is the least number of matches played by a batter to reach a total of 13,000+ runs. Root averages 57.40 at the moment, the second best amongst the top 5 run-getters in the Test format. His average is only bettered by Ricky Ponting (58.72), who is now 3rd in the list of highest run-getters in the history of the format.Since the start of Covid-19, Root has been in exceptional form in Test cricket. Out of his 38 hundreds, 21 have come since March 2020. In this period, the batter has scored 5,810 runs in 65 Tests, towering over the rest of the batters in the world. The second-best batter in this period is Steve Smith, who has 3,250 runs from 46 matches.It needs to be mentioned that since the start of Covid-19, Root and the English players have played the most number of Test matches.- EndsMust Watch
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