NEW DELHI: Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting believes Joe Root could surpass Sachin Tendulkar‘s record of Test runs, provided the Englishman maintains his current form and hunger for the next four years.
Root recently crossed the 12,000-run mark during the Edgbaston Test against the West Indies, becoming the seventh batter to achieve this milestone in Test cricket.
Root has accumulated 12,027 runs in 143 Tests, with an average of 50.11, including 32 centuries and 63 fifties.
He is currently the seventh-highest run-scorer in Tests and is set to overtake Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (12,400 runs) and his former teammate Alastair Cook (12,472 runs) soon.
Sachin Tendulkar leads the chart with 15,921 runs from 200 Tests, while Ponting is second with 13,378 runs from 168 Tests.
“He (Root) could potentially do that. He is 33 years of age…(more than) 3000 runs behind,” Ponting told The ICC Review.
“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.
Ponting said Root will need to remain hungry for runs and the England batter has got the age on his side to aim for the Test record.
“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,” Ponting said.
“There’s always talk around batters reaching their prime in their early 30s and he’s certainly done that. It’s been his conversion rates being the big thing,” he said.
Ponting said Root seemed to have overcome his inability to convert half-centuries into big scores.
“Four or five years ago, he was making a lot of 50s and struggling to go on and make hundreds and he’s gone the other way recently,” Ponting said.
“Almost every time he gets to 50 now, he goes on and makes a big hundred. So that’s been the real turnaround for him,” he added.
Root recently crossed the 12,000-run mark during the Edgbaston Test against the West Indies, becoming the seventh batter to achieve this milestone in Test cricket.
Root has accumulated 12,027 runs in 143 Tests, with an average of 50.11, including 32 centuries and 63 fifties.
He is currently the seventh-highest run-scorer in Tests and is set to overtake Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (12,400 runs) and his former teammate Alastair Cook (12,472 runs) soon.
Sachin Tendulkar leads the chart with 15,921 runs from 200 Tests, while Ponting is second with 13,378 runs from 168 Tests.
“He (Root) could potentially do that. He is 33 years of age…(more than) 3000 runs behind,” Ponting told The ICC Review.
“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.
Ponting said Root will need to remain hungry for runs and the England batter has got the age on his side to aim for the Test record.
“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,” Ponting said.
“There’s always talk around batters reaching their prime in their early 30s and he’s certainly done that. It’s been his conversion rates being the big thing,” he said.
Ponting said Root seemed to have overcome his inability to convert half-centuries into big scores.
“Four or five years ago, he was making a lot of 50s and struggling to go on and make hundreds and he’s gone the other way recently,” Ponting said.
“Almost every time he gets to 50 now, he goes on and makes a big hundred. So that’s been the real turnaround for him,” he added.