England star batter Joe Root recently opened up on the prospect of surpassing legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar as the highest run-scorer in Test cricket.
Root, who is enjoying a purple patch with the bat in red-ball cricket, scored another hundred in the ongoing second home Test against Sri Lanka on Saturday, taking his centuries tally to 34.
With his 34th century, Joe Root came level with legends of the game including Pakistan’s Younis Khan, India’s Sunil Gavaskar, Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene, and West Indies’ Brian Lara.
Root, who recently amassed 12,000 runs in Test cricket to become the seventh-highest run-scorer of all time, has second-placed Ponting and Tendulkar’s overall record within sight.
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The English batter has scored 12377 runs, meanwhile, Sachin Tendulkar is leading the list with 15921 runs.
With Root being 33 years old and 3544 runs away from Tendulkar’s record, it’s been discussed among cricket circles that he has a realistic chance of surpassing the Indian legend as the highest run-scorer in Test cricket.
He was asked if he is keeping an eye on breaking Tendulkar’s record after scoring his 34th Test hundred, however, the right-hander stated that he prefers to keep team goals over his personal milestones.
“I just want to play, and try, and do my bit for the team and score the runs as many as I can and see where we get to,” said Joe Root.
“It’s obviously amazing when, you score 100, you’d be lying if you said it wasn’t, a big part of why you start playing the game and what you love about it.
“But there’s no better feeling than winning a Test match. So the more, it can affect games and the more you can, add to the team, the greater it is. So, that will be the main focus. And hopefully more days like this will come with that mentality.”
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