Out of nowhere, Joe Root finds himself thinking about Sachin Tendulkar’s massive career just as he inches closer to records of his own. Right now, the English player sits at number two worldwide with 13,943 runs. Only one man stands above him – that Indian legend who finished on 15,921, a mark still untouched in Test history
Nowhere else has a batter held form so steadily through years, yet Root keeps doing it. With every innings, talk grows louder about where he stands among greats like Lara or Gavaskar. Instead of fading under pressure, his record deepens – season after season, series after series. Not many last this long at the summit; fewer still perform like he does. Alongside Kallis and others once thought untouchable, his name now fits without question.
These days, when folks talk about where his name might land in history, Root says even hearing himself talked about like Tendulkar feels like a win on its own.
Truth hits hard when it comes to Sachin Tendulkar’s place in cricket. Picture this – someone who started playing Tests before I took my first breath still stood on the field during mine. That stretch alone stuns anyone paying attention. Then come the numbers: mountains of runs built over years most athletes wouldn’t dream of lasting. While others faded, he kept scoring. Fifty centuries in one-day games? That isn’t just skill, that’s persistence wearing down time itself. Being mentioned near a name like his feels less like competition and more like luck. He stayed the top name across India throughout it all. A deep-level competitor, that one, he mentioned during a chat with The Athletic.
Starting out, Root built a name with clean stroke play. Yet things shifted after 2018. Form dipped sharply over the next few seasons. Instead of flowing centuries, long waits followed each hundred. Just four big scores came across sixty knocks. By then, questions replaced praise.
Years after the pandemic shifted everything, his performance began changing fast. Back in full swing, he started scoring heavily, regaining status among cricket’s top batsmen through sheer consistency. Century after century followed, each innings reinforcing what many had nearly forgotten.
Grow From Anger
Still stinging from the lopsided 4-1 loss to Australia, the experienced player from England spoke about how the latest Ashes letdown continues to weigh on the group. Though time has passed, the outcome still brings annoyance behind closed doors.
“Any series you don’t win, you’re going to be disappointed and you’re going to try and find areas where you could have been better. The one thing that stands out and frustrates me the most is that, you know, the coaches have taken and worn a lot of the negativity around what happened this winter and, as players, we should be the ones taking the responsibility for how we performed. We’re the ones out there, we’re the ones making the decisions and playing the game and we’re the ones who underperformed. That’s on us. They shouldn’t be the ones shouldering that,” he added.