Former England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott claims that current England Test skipper Joe Root has the potential to surpass Sachin Tendulkar in Test Record.
During the Test series against Sri Lanka, Root went past Boycott, Kevin Pietersen, and Dawid Gower in the all-time England scoring list in Tests. Only Graham Gooch (8900) and Alastair Cook (12,472) have scored more Test runs than Root.
Joe Root can Surpass Sachin Tendulkar in Test Record
At the age of 30, Joe Root has played 99 Test matches and scored 8249 runs at an average of close to 50. While Sachin Tendulkar ended his career with 15,921 runs in 200 Tests.
“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,” Boycott wrote 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.
Boycott oppose Root’s comparison with former England greats
Meanwhile, Boycott said it’s unfair to compare Joe Root with the past greats, saying every player is a product of their environment.
“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,” Boycott added.
Meanwhile, Boycott said Root would have reassessed his game during the Covid-19 lockdown and it would have helped him renew his hunger for big runs, adding it was not until this series the England captain was making influential scores in the longest format of the game.
“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.
