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England’s current Test captain and batting icon Joe Root found himself in a fun but tough debate when the Barmy Army asked him to choose between some of the biggest names in the history of the game.
Actually, Root had to pick one player between two legends, and the winner would move to the next round with the batting legends like Steve Smith, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar, and Virat Kohli entering the contest. Amid this, Aakash Chopra backs Gautam Gambhir as Shubman Gill faces captaincy challenges.
Steve Smith beats Joe Root, but Ricky Ponting gets the nod
The first question itself was interesting, and was it Joe Root or Steve Smith? Root went with Smith, who has built a remarkable Test career, scoring more than 10900 Test runs as well as around 900 white-ball runs and becoming one of Australia's most successful modern batters.
Root himself has established himself as one of the greatest Test batters the game has ever seen. The Englishman has already amassed over 1400 test runs in his career so far.
Then, Smith was pitted with another Australian legend, and he is none other than Ricky Ponting. Root picked Ponting over Smith. Ponting finished his career with more than 27,000 runs in international cricket while leading Australia to two World Cups.
Joe Root picks Jacques Kallis over Ricky Ponting, Alastair Cook and Kumar Sangakkara
The competition became even tougher when Ponting was placed against South African legend Jacques Kallis. Root has picked Kallis over Ponting and even his former captain Alastair Cook, who finished his England career with more than 15700 runs across the formats.
Even the England captain overlooked Kumar Sangakkara for Kallis. The former Sri Lankan captain is one of the greatest captains and batters across the formats the game has ever seen. Sangakkara has around 28000 runs for Sri Lanka in the international cricket tournament to his name.
Well, Jacques Kallis is one of the rare players whose numbers are extraordinary in both batting and bowling. The legendary all-rounder scored more than 25,000 international runs and took over 500 international wickets during his decorated career.
The Proteas legend has several records to his name. That all-round record clearly made it really tough for Root to ignore the other icons like Ponting, Sangakkara, Cook, and even Brian Lara. Amid this, Match fixing? Wanindu Hasaranga’s bizarre hit-wicket dismissal in ENG vs SL clash sparks speculation.
Joe Root picks Sachin Tendulkar over Virat Kohli in stunning debate
Then came the biggest twist of the entire game. Kallis was pitted against the legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar. He finished his international career with 34,357 runs, including 100 international centuries. He also became the first player to score 200 in an ODI.
Despite Kallis' incredible all-round numbers, Root picked Tendulkar. Well, the final question was arguably the most exciting one for Indian cricket fans: Sachin Tendulkar or Virat Kohli?
Kohli has already produced huge numbers of his own, including more than 27,000 international runs and over 80 international centuries. Kohli is one of the greatest batters of the modern era. However, Root went with Tendulkar as the greatest batters.
When Joe Root played winner stays on 👀
— England's Barmy Army 🏴🎺 (@TheBarmyArmy) September 20, 2026
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