Joe Root Can Break Sachin Tendulkar's Record Of Most Test Runs: Geoffrey Boycott

Former England legendary batsman Geoffrey Boycott has heaped high praise on current English skipper and fellow Yorkshireman Joe Root after the 30-year-old leapfrogged him in the list of most runs scored by an Englishman in a Test match cricket.

Joe Root shrugged off his inability to convert his 50s into a 100 by smashing back-to-back daddy hundreds in the recently-concluded two-match Test series against Sri Lanka.

Root smashed a double-hundred in the first Test and he followed that up with a masterly 186 in the second to help England register a 2-0 series win against Sri Lanka.

In the process, Joe Root leapfrogged the likes of Geoffrey Boycott [8113], Kevin Pietersen [8181], and David Gower [8231] to become the 4th highest run-getter for England.

The current skipper is now behind former stumper Alex Stewart [8463], Graham Gooch [8900], and his former teammate Sir Alastair Cook [12472] in terms of leading run-scorers for England in Test match cricket.

Heaping high praise on Root, 30, Boycott, in his column for the Daily Telegraph, has written that if the current captain does not encounter a career-threatening injury then he can break Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most Tests (200) and most runs (15921) in the longest format of the game.

Root currently has 8249 Test runs in 99 matches at an average of 49.1 with the help of 49 50s and 19 three-figure scores.

”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,” Geoffrey Boycott wrote in a column for ‘The Telegraph’.

“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,” he added.

 

‘The COVID-19 lockdowns allowed him time to take stock of his batting’- Geoffrey Boycott on Joe Root

Root’s masterclass in how to tackle spin in Asian conditions has kickstarted a debate as to whether he is the best English batsman to play on turning tracks.

However, Boycott feels that it is futile to compare Joe Root with cricketers from the bygone era and that he should only be compared with his contemporaries.

“His 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 said.

Boycott further reckoned that the Covid-19 enforced break has helped Joe Root in taking stock of his Test batting, who he feels was trying too hard to bat his way back into the T20I team.

“Until this tour Joe had not been making the big scores that influence matches. Perhaps the COVID-19 lockdowns allowed him time to take stock of his batting. 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,” Boycott said.

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