Ian Bell feels irrespective of whether Joe Root surpasses Sachin Tendulkar, he will go down in history as England’s best Test batter of all time.
With each innings Joe Root plays, he gets closer to beating Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most runs in Test cricket. With 15921 runs, Tendulkar sits atop the list, albeit not comfortably as Root’s tally of 12404 runs promises to catch up to the Master Blaster. Root, the former England captain, is just 33, and considering the rate at which he is going, in the next four years or so, knocking off another 3517 runs shouldn’t be a hard climb unless something drastic happens – like a career-threatening injury or a dip in form like Virat Kohli’s.
Michael Vaughan has already tipped Root to go past Sachin by the time he retires, but another former England batter chose to remain tight-lipped on the debate. Ian Bell, one of their finest No. 3s of all time, decided not to touch upon the Root vs Tendulkar saga, asserting that the fact Joe is being talked about to go past the great Sachin speaks volumes of his incredible achievement.
“He’s played incredibly well in the last 12 months. I don’t think he’s overthinking too much what’s ahead. He’s just sort of living in the moment as we are,” Bell told PTI on the sidelines of Legends League Cricket.
Root has been an unstoppable run-machine of late. In the second Test against Sri Lanka a little ago, Root notched up twin centuries at Lord’s, taking his Test hundred tally to 34. Only Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara and Rahul Dravid have more, but once again, given the rich vein of form he is in, Root’s trajectory threatens the records of all the aforementioned greats.
Root has a challenging 10 Tests ahead – five against India at home and another five in Australia for the Ashes. These two series promise to shape his career in ways unimaginable, but irrespective of whether he reaches the pinnacle of Test cricket, Bell declares Root the greatest English Test batter of all time.
