Legendary Australian captain Ricky Ponting believes that star English batter Joe Root could be the one to surpass the ‘God of Cricket’ Sachin Tendulkar as the highest run-scorer in Test cricket. He said if the former England captain remains "hungry" and scored consistently for the next four years, he can get past the Indian great. Root recently crossed the 12,000-run mark during the Edgbaston Test against the West Indies, becoming only the seventh batter in red-ball format history to do so.
Root is the seventh-highest run-scorer overall in Tests with 12,027 runs in 143 Tests at 50.11, 32 centuries, and 63 fifties. He could soon surpass Kumar Sangakkara (12,400 runs) and his former teammate Alastair Cook (12,472). Tendulkar is on top of the table with 15921 runs from 200 Tests.
Ponting on Root
"He (Root) could potentially do that. He is 33 years of age…(more than) 3000 runs behind. It depends how many Test matches they play, but if they're playing 10 to 14 Test matches a year and if you're scoring 800 to 1,000 runs a year, then that sort of says he's only three or four years off getting there. So that'll take him to 37 (years of age)," Ponting told The ICC Review.
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Ponting, who has 13,378 runs from 168 Tests, is second on the list behind Tendulkar. He said that Root will need to keep looking for runs, and the England batter has the experience to beat the Test record.
"If his hunger's still there, then there's every chance that he could do it. He is someone that in the last couple of years has got better and better. There's always talk around batters reaching their prime in their early 30s and he's certainly done that. It's been his conversion rates being the big thing," he said.
According to Ponting, Root appeared to have overcome his inability to translate half-centuries into significant scores.
"Four or five years ago, he was making a lot of 50s and struggling to go on and make hundreds and he's gone the other way recently. Almost every time he gets to 50 now, he goes on and makes a big hundred. So that's been the real turnaround for him," he added.
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