The fourth Test at Old Trafford last week wasn’t just another England-India battle, it was a reminder of Joe Root’s extraordinary consistency in the longest format.
With his brilliant 150, Root edged past some of the biggest names in cricket to become the second-highest run scorer in Test history. He’s now behind only the great Sachin Tendulkar.
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This has sparked plenty of questions about whether Root can actually go on to break that towering record. But when Jos Buttler was asked about it, the England white-ball captain had a completely different take.
The fifth and final Test of the India-England series is set to begin on 31st july, and with Root still in top form, the focus will again be on whether he has the legendary Indian’s number in sight or not.
Is Joe Root chasing Sachin Tendulkar’s Test runs record?
Joe Root has made serious headlines after his 248-ball 150 at Old Trafford in the fourth Test, where England batted only once.
With that innings, Root took his career tally to 13,409 Test runs in 286 innings, pushing past icons like Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, and Ricky Ponting.
He’s now just 2,512 runs behind Sachin Tendulkar’s all-time Test record of 15,921 runs, and given that Root is still just 34 years old, many believe the record is very much in reach.
But Jos Buttler has a different opinion. Speaking on his YouTube channel, he said Root doesn’t approach cricket with individual milestones in mind. According to him, chasing records is not how Root plays or thinks.
“He’s not hunting down Sachin Tendulkar because that’s definitely not the way he plays his cricket or how he sees it,” Butler said
Buttler described the feat as “absolutely mind-blowing” and admitted that the record does seem "attainable" if Root continues to stay fit and keep batting the way he is.
“But he is number two on an incredibly elite list, with what seems like, if he stays fit, quite an attainable kind of thing, which is absolutely mindblowing.”
Since cricket resumed after the COVID break, Joe Root has reached a new peak. Buttler pointed out that Root has smashed 21 Test hundreds since the pandemic.
“He has got 21 hundreds since COVID. He is obviously in the form of his life and it is awesome to watch,” he added.
With Root still playing all formats and having at least a couple more years of red-ball cricket left, even those who agree with Buttler’s view about Root’s mindset admit that numbers like these can’t be ignored.