{"id":358147,"date":"2026-01-08T02:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T02:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/358147\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T02:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T02:23:15","slug":"catching-sachin-tendulkars-unfathomable-15921-joe-root-is-on-his-way-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/358147\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching Sachin Tendulkar\u2019s unfathomable 15,921: Joe Root is on his way | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CatchingJoe Root and Sachin Tendulkar New Delhi: Joe Root<\/a> has shared the field with Sachin Tendulkar<\/a> only once — on his Test debut in Nagpur in December 2012.Sachin, 39 at the time, was in the twilight of his career. He played six more Tests before retiring a year later. In that Nagpur Test, Root, just days shy of his 22nd birthday, stamped his class against India\u2019s four-pronged spin attack, scoring 73 and 20 not out.<\/p>\n

Jonny Bairstow breaks down the 34-run over off Keshav Maharaj & his partnership with Quinton de Kock<\/p>\n

Few realised it then, but the pursuit had already begun, with Root quietly setting off on Tendulkar’s trail.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!<\/a>Cut to the present, Root has started 2026 with a century, his second of the ongoing Ashes in Australia. The England batter now needs 1,978 more runs to surpass Tendulkar\u2019s record. Root’s Test tally currently reads: 13,943 runs from 163 Tests.<\/p>\n

Root is hunting down Sachin\u2019s record<\/p>\n

At 35, Joe Root is showing no signs of slowing down.Following his century at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), former England captain Michael Vaughan<\/a> said on Cricbuzz that Root will break Tendulkar\u2019s record. \"Australia<\/p>\n

England’s Joe Root walks from the field after he was dismissed during play on day four of the fifth and final Ashes cricket test between England and Australia in Sydney, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo\/Mark Baker)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt Root will break Sachin\u2019s record. The real question is whether he will be back for the next Ashes in Australia, which is four years away,\u201d Vaughan said.England\u2019s Test calendar is mapped out until the end of the 2027 home summer. This year brings three home Tests each against New Zealand and Pakistan. The 2026\u201327 winter includes three Tests in South Africa, two in Bangladesh, and a one-off 150th anniversary Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). In 2027, England will play seven Tests, including another Ashes series. In total, that presents a possible 20 Tests over the next 18 months. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s still young. He has four years of cricket ahead of him. When you\u2019re hot, you\u2019re hot, and he has age on his side,<\/p>\n

Ravi Shastri<\/p>\n

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has also backed Root to seriously challenge Tendulkar\u2019s unrivalled Test legacy. Speaking during commentary in the India vs England fourth Test at Old Trafford last year, Shastri said Root has time firmly on his side.\u201cLook at his age (35). Look at the number of matches. He\u2019s got about 40 Tests left. Sachin played 200 Tests. Root has played around 160. He\u2019s still young. He has four years of cricket ahead of him. And what will separate him and Tendulkar will be around 3,000 runs. When you\u2019re hot, you\u2019re hot, and he has age on his side,\u201d Shastri said. \"India<\/p>\n

Argentina’s Lionel Messi, right, and former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar pose for picture during his India tour in Mumbai, India, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo\/Rafiq Maqbool)<\/p>\n

Professional sport rarely follows a neat script. Root has enjoyed remarkable fortune so far, missing just two Tests since his debut, never because of an injury.<\/p>\n

Root vs Kohli vs Smith vs Williamson<\/p>\n

Legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar had famously said that Root was a notch below the other memembers of the famed Fab Four \u2014 Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson.Gavaskar was not wrong.In January 2021, the contrast among the Fab Four was stark. Kohli had 27 Test centuries from 73 matches, Smith 26 from 70, Williamson 23 from 64, while Root lagged behind with just 17 hundreds despite having played 96 Tests. \"fab<\/p>\n

(L-R) Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson<\/p>\n

More tellingly, Root had accumulated 48 half-centuries — more than Kohli and Smith\u2019s combined tally — underlining how often he got starts without converting them into a triple digit score.Reaching 50 was never Root\u2019s problem. Time and again, he cruised through the first half of an innings, only to fall before reaching the landmark that defines elite Test batters.Fast forward to 2025, and the narrative has flipped completely. Over the past four years, Root has struck 24 centuries and just 17 fifties across 67 Tests. By comparison, Williamson has ten hundreds in 24 matches, Smith 11 in 47, while Kohli managed only three in 36 Tests before retiring from the format in May 2025. \"APTOPIX<\/p>\n

England’s Joe Root bats during play on day two of the fifth and final Ashes cricket test between England and Australia in Sydney, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo\/Mark Baker)<\/p>\n

Root has credited his resurgence to work done during the Covid-19 pandemic and detailed conversations with former England captain Nasser Hussain.\u201cI actually spoke to Nass quite a bit,\u201d Root said on Sky Sports. \u201cI asked if I could get some footage and looked at my modes of dismissal to see if there were any patterns \u2014 the different ways I was getting out at various stages of my innings.\u201cEarly in my career, a lot of it was about technique \u2014 where my hands were, where my head was, whether I was lined up right, whether my trigger was correct. In this second phase, it\u2019s been more about managing risk and eliminating as many modes of dismissal as possible while still producing the highest output.\u201dIn 2025, Root stands alone among his peers as the only realistic contender to chase down Sachin Tendulkar\u2019s all-time Test run record.<\/p>\n

Sachin vs Root in numbers<\/p>\n

Age, numbers and timing are beginning to align for Root in a way few would have imagined a decade ago. \"Australia<\/p>\n

England’s Joe Root gestures with his bat during play on day two of the fifth and final Ashes cricket test between England and Australia in Sydney, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo\/Mark Baker)<\/p>\n

At 34, just before the Sydney Test, Root had accumulated 13,777 runs at an average of 50.83 across 296 innings in 162 Tests. At the same age, Tendulkar stood at 11,782 runs at 55.31 after 147 Tests — fewer matches, a higher average, but significantly fewer runs.By the time both reached 298 innings, Tendulkar had surged to 14,965 runs at 56.95, while Root stood at 13,943 at 51.07.Milestones underline the contrast. Root reached his 41st Test century in his 297th innings — the slowest among batters to reach that mark. Tendulkar, by contrast, brought up his 51st hundred in his 289th innings.<\/p>\n

Poll<\/p>\n

Do you think Joe Root will surpass Sachin Tendulkar’s Test run record?<\/p>\n

After turning 35, Tendulkar added another 4,139 runs in 91 innings at an average of 49.86, including 12 centuries.For Root, the arithmetic is demanding but not implausible. To match Tendulkar\u2019s final tally within the same number of innings — 329 — he needs 1,978 runs from his next 31 innings.Unlike Tendulkar, who played 463 ODIs, Root has largely focused on one format. He has featured in just 218 white-ball internationals (186 ODIs and 32 T20Is). With age and fitness on his side, the Yorkshire-born batter may yet cruise past Sachin\u2019s once-unfathomable mark of 15,921 Test runs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Root and Sachin Tendulkar New Delhi: Joe Root has shared the field with Sachin Tendulkar only once…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[10086,1721,1722,15458,19030,15620,137592,15623,101,24064,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-358147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-ashes-series","tag-cricket","tag-england-cricket","tag-joe-root","tag-michael-vaughan","tag-ravi-shastri","tag-root-vs-kohli","tag-sachin-tendulkar","tag-sports","tag-test-cricket-records","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}