Legendary Australian skipper Ricky Ponting, one of the finest batters in the longest format of the game and also the second-highest run-getter in the history of the format, made a startling claim in his recent interview with the ICC.
He believes English batter Joe Root could surpass the record of Test runs, which has been the almost unlettable record of the living legend, Sachin Tendulkar.
Root recently managed the 12,000-run mark during the Edgbaston Test against the West Indies, becoming the seventh batter in world cricket to achieve this feat. The ones who had done so previously, include the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Alastair Cook, and Kumara Sangakkara.
An insight into Joe Root’s career as a Test batter
Joe Root, one of England’s best batters, started playing for the nation in the longest format of the game back in 2012. Since then, Root has emerged as one of England’s top choices at No. 3, especially going by his standards in Test cricket.
Joe Root, in over a decade of his Test career, has been one of the Fab-4 batters of modern-day test cricket, which also includes the likes of veteran batters like Australia’s Steven Smith, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, and India’s Virat Kohli.
Though not all of these batters have been able to keep up the good work as well as Root has kept his standards with consistency. Joe Root till now has managed to feature in 143 Tests, of which he has scored 12,027 runs at an average of 50.11. Root has also scored 32 tons in the format and is not very far from breaching the likes of one of the many greatest names of World cricket.
Chances that Ponting sights of Root breaking Tendulkar’s record
As for Ponting, he has kept full faith in the Englishman to retain his skills as well as form as a batter. Root, now with 12027 runs, is placed 7th on the list of all-time highest run-getters in the format.
As the legendary Tendulkar leads the chart with 15921 runs from an iconic 200 Test matches, the Aussie captain himself is seated at the second position with 13378 runs in the format. Root is very likely to go past former English skipper Alastair Cook and Kumara Sangakara, as they are 445 and 373 runs ahead of the England no. 4.
Ponting overviewed that if Root, now 33, continues his form in the longest format and sighting his low injury count, he can probably be with the English team for the next 4 years or so.
“He could potentially do that. He is 33 years of age and more than 3000 runs behind,” Ponting said.
After this, the Aussie veteran indicated that by keeping up his great touch and playing the equal number of Tests that England currently plays, Root will have around 50 matches left in his career, and scoring 1000 runs annually can easily get him past the legendary Indian.
Ponting added,
“If his hunger’s still there, then there’s every chance that he could do it. He is someone that, in the last couple of years, has gotten better and better.”
For now, whatever Ponting has indicated seems hypothetical, but the veteran Australian has been often regarded as one of the finest cricketing brains and very long-sighted when it comes to the Test format. Also praising his conversion rate and the ideology of Bazball also by his side, Ponting is allies with Root to go past one of cricket’s most invincible records, the highest Test runs of Sachin Tendulkar (15921).
