When Joe Root, the England middle-order batter, was asked about the possibility of overtaking Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most runs in Test cricket, he spoke about the importance of playing and winning games of cricket. The 33-year-old is still a whopping 3544 runs behind Sachin Tendulkar’s tally, but his incredible form in the last few years in Tests make him a contender to get past the Indian legend.
Notably, in the recently concluded Test match at Lord’s in London, which England won by 190 runs to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, Joe Root scored hundreds in both the innings, to get up to 34 three-figure scores in the longest format of the game. With that, he also got past his former teammate Alastair Cook to become the highest Test hundred scorer for England.
“I just want to play, and try, and do my bit for the team: Joe Root on breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s record
In a video posted on the official X account of England Cricket, Joe Root addressed the speculation surrounding him getting past Sachin Tendulkar in a calm and composed manner. He said, “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. But there’s no better feeling I mean, it’s amazing when you score 100, you’d be lying if you said it wasn’t, a big part of why you started 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,” Joe Root added.
Joe Root has 12377 runs in 145 Tests for England in comparison to 15921 runs in 200 Tests for Sachin Tendulkar in Indian colours during his career spanning 24 years.