Joe Root slammed his second century of the series on Day 3 of the Manchester Test against India, reaching 150 as England look to seal the Anderson–Tendulkar Trophy.
During his knock of 150, Root surpassed Ricky Ponting's run tally of 13,378 runs to become the second-highest run-scorer in Test history.
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The English batter is only behind Sachin Tendulkar for the most runs in Test cricket -- 15,921 set by the Master Blaster.
In the process, Root's contemporaries in the famous Fab Four, including Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, and Kane Williamson, have all been left far behind, especially in Test cricket.
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With Kohli retired from the Test format and Root extending the gap between Williamson and Smith, former India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin currently considers the Englishman daylight ahead of the rest of Fab 4.
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R Ashwin on the best Test batter in Fab-Four
Speaking about the Fab 4 on his YouTube channel (Ash ki Baat), Ashwin lauded Root's consistency and quick rise since 2020.
He described how Smith, Kohli, and Williamson dominated in phases during the 2014-2020 period but felt Root had surpassed all of them in the second half of his career.
Since 2020, the period R Ashwin highlighted -- former England captain Root has piled up 6,050 Test runs at an average of 55, including 21 centuries in 68 matches. Steve Smith is the next best among the Fab Four, with 3,313 runs at 45.38 in 47 Tests.
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"All of these four batters have always had the ability; there was no doubting that. Steve Smith and Virat at a time together on it — Smith slightly got ahead, and then Virat tried to catch him from 2016 to 2018," Ashwin noted.
"Then Kane Williamson came back and put his hand up around that time. Then what happened after covid, Joe Root has left all the others behind -- all the other three are far behind now. It's Joe Root, then a gap and then a gap and then the rest -- clearly, Joe Root, daylight and the rest at this point."
While their New Zealand counterpart has scored at a healthy average of 64.37 since the start of 2020, he has not played enough Test matches to topple the run tally of Root and Smith, with 2897 runs to his name in 27 matches.
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As Ashwin mentioned, Kohli dominated during the 2016-18 period with 3596 runs at an average of 66.59; however, the Indian has only managed 2028 runs at an average of 30.72 in 39 matches since 2020.
How has the Fab-Four performed in Test cricket?
Since 2010, when Williamson became the first of the four batters to make a Test debut, the Fab 4 have occupied all the top-4 spots in the runs scored charts during the 15-year period.
| Batter | Matches | Innings | Runs | Avg | Highest | 50/100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Root | 157 | 286 | 13409 | 54.17 | 262 | 66/38 |
| Steve Smith | 119 | 212 | 10477 | 56.02 | 239 | 43/36 |
| Kane Williamson | 105 | 186 | 9276 | 54.88 | 251 | 43/33 |
| Virat Kohli | 123 | 210 | 9230 | 46.85 | 254* | 31/30 |
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