Talk of Joe Root breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s record Test aggregate too premature

Of late, there has been some talk of Joe Root going on to break Sachin Tendulkar’s record Test aggregate of nearly 16,000 runs. Well, Root has just passed 10,000 runs, a feat that a dozen other batsmen apart from Tendulkar and Root have achieved. There is a clear difference of over 2,500 runs, 2,543 runs to be precise, between Tendulkar and the next highest Ricky Ponting.

Yes, Root is just about 31-and-a-half years old, but he still has 5,727 runs to score before he scales Everest, which Tendulkar did. Remember, the great Jack Hobbs scored 5,410 runs in his career of 61 Tests. So Root still has to do a Hobbs and more. Does he have it in him, now that he is into his 30s? Hobbs averaged nearly 57. Despite being in the form of his life, Root’s average is still below 50.

Records are meant to be broken and, as of now, Root is certainly in line to break Tendulkar’s record. To do that, he would have to score 1,000 runs a year for more than five-and-a-half years. By which time, he would be almost 37 years old. Many would argue that Tendulkar played till the age of 40. Assuming that Root plays till 40, he would need to score an average of about 675 runs a year.

Apart from physical fitness, will Root be able to maintain his form over such a long period, and does he have the mental resilience to last the course? Even Tendulkar struggled in the last two years of his glittering career, being just about able to reach his much-awaited 100th international hundred.

Can Joe Root show the kind of ingenuity Sachin Tendulkar did?

Alastair Cook celebrates his century during a County Championship match between Essex and Yorkshire on May 5, 2022, in Chelmsford. (Getty Images)

There was a time, not long ago, when it was felt that Root’s former compatriot Alastair Cook would surpass Tendulkar. Cook lost form, and then the desire, and opted out. It was also thought that Virat Kohli would smash Tendulkar’s seemingly insurmountable ODI record. Kohli was reeling off runs and hundreds. Now the gushing waters have been reduced to a trickle.

Instinctive players like Kohli are able to transcend technique when they are in their prime in the 20s. When his eyesight and reflexes were razor sharp, Kohli was able to get away with his propensity to reach out wide outside the off-stump. At the hint of a slowdown, he was caught out, literally. Another 6,000-plus runs and six hundreds to equal Tendulkar’s ODI tally seem a bridge too far at the moment.

Tendulkar kept reinventing himself. He eked out every ounce of the abundance of talent with which he was endowed. For the first decade of his Test career, he batted like his idol Vivian Richards. Then, when back trouble started dogging him. He had to adjust, primarily cutting out that rasping pull shot off the front foot. He now started batting like his other idol, Sunil Gavaskar, more calculated in his approach. He added the upper-cut to his repertoire, and the runs kept coming.

Along the way came the famous headline, ‘Endulkar’. Years later it was still not the end. Tendulkar saw India to the top of the Test tree, the One-day World Cup, and stellar performances in challenging overseas conditions. Will Root, or indeed Kohli, show the kind of ingenuity and stamina that Tendulkar did? Time will tell, but it certainly will not be as easy as some people believe.

Players like WG Grace, Don Bradman, Gary Sobers and Tendulkar come once in several generations. To emulate them takes something very special. Joe Root will have to bear that in mind.