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During an exclusive interview with the ICC, the former Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, backed Joe Root to surpass the tally of most runs in Test cricket by legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar. The 42-year-old spoke about how Joe Root would need to play three or four years of Test cricket, to get past Sachin Tendulkar, which could happen since he is 33 years of age.
Notably, Joe Root went past 12,000 Test runs in his previous outing against West Indies at Edgbaston in Birmingham, to reach number seven on the all-time run-scoring charts in the longest format. He has 12,027 Test runs to his name in 143 matches for England, finding himself just around 400 runs behind Kumar Sangakkara and Alastair Cook.
Ricky Ponting backs Joe Root to surpass Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar, who played 200 Tests for India, accumulated 15,921 runs to his name, which puts him 3,894 runs ahead of Joe Root. During his interview for the ICC Review show, Ricky Ponting said, as per Sportstar, “He (Joe Root) could potentially do that. He is 33 years of age…(more than) 3000 runs behind.”
The former ODI World Cup winner gave the timeline for Joe Root to surpass Sachin Tendulkar in the all-time run-scoring charts in Test cricket. He said, “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),” said the legendary Australian.
“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,” Ricky Ponting further added.
