England captain Joe Root was in prime form during the two-Test series in Sri Lanka where he led his team to a 2-0 series clean sweep. Root, whose next assignment is the India tour, scored 426 runs in four innings at an average of 106.50 including two centuries with a high score of 228.
He also became the fourth-highest run-getter in Test cricket for England and the first ever captain to hit two double-hundreds. Overall, he has now four double-centuries to his name and England batting legend Geoffrey Boycott has tipped him to overtake the great Sachin Tendulkar as the leading run-getter in Test history.
Writing in his column for The Telegraph, Boycott said there’s no question why Root, 30, cannot surpass Tendulkar who retired as Test cricket’s most prolific run-getter in November 2013 with 15921 runs in 200 Tests.
“Forget just scoring more Test runs for England than David Gower, Kevin Pietersen and myself. Joe Root has the potential to play 200 Tests and score more runs than even Sachin Tendulkar,” Boycott wrote. “Root is only 30. He has played 99 Tests and scored 8249 runs already. As long as he does not suffer serious injury there is no reason why he cannot beat Tendulkar’s all-time record of 15,921.”
However, he cautioned against drawing comparisons between Root and stars of the bygone era saying he should only be judged alongside his contemporaries.
“His (Root) contemporaries, such as Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson, are wonderful players as well who could also score that many runs. We should enjoy Root and only judge him alongside those guys, not great names of the past because every player is a product of their environment,” he wrote.
Boycott further said Root may have worked on his batting during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown and it’s evident in his approach in Test cricket. “For too long he appeared to be influenced by Twenty20 cricket. He was trying to force his way back into England’s T20 side, but that frenetic type of batting is not for him,” he argued.
“I felt that when playing Test cricket his subconscious was telling him to try to score off almost every ball. He was opening the face of the bat to good length balls trying to run it to third man, working straight balls to leg and even when he defended a really good ball he would set off for a run. In other words, he was trying to avoid a dot ball. Against top-class Test bowlers that is not possible,” he added.