Joe Root had a prolific outing with the bat in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025. He started the series with 53 not out in the second innings of the first Test at Headlingley. After a tough outing at Edgbaston,
the rhythm that he got, resulted in him scoring hundreds in the final three Test matches at Lord’s (104 off 199 balls), Old Trafford (150 off 248 balls) and The Oval (105 off 152 balls) respectively. Scoring 537 runs in five Test match series, Joe Root ended up being the second in the top run-scorers list. During the fourth Test of the series in Manchester, Joe Root went past Rahul Dravid (13,288 runs), Jacques Kallis (13,289 runs), and Ricky Ponting (13,378 runs), to become the second highest run-scorer in Test cricket.
With 13,543 Test runs, Root is only behind one name i.e., Sachin Tendulkar (15,921 runs) in the tally. Former England spinner Monty Panesar believes that Joe Root can break Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most Test runs. In a report, Panesar shared his thoughts on Root potentially surpassing the former Indian batter by saying, “He’ll break it, and he’ll go past it. I think he’ll end up scoring 18,000 Test runs.” He further added that Joe Root will probably end up playing until 40, so he can get past Sachin’s tally easily. “He’s 34, he’s got another six years. He’ll probably score another four to five thousand Test runs. So, Tendulkar played until 40, so he’ll probably end up playing until 40,” said Panesar.
Joe Root still need 2,379 runs to surpass Sachin Tendulkar’s tally
Joe Root still needs to score 2,379 runs to get past Sachin Tendulkar’s runs in Test cricket, to register himself as the highest run-scorer in the red-ball format. He has been in good form since 2021, scoring 5,720 runs from 61 matches at an average of 56.63 with 22 hundreds and 17 fifties. The 34-year-old has also improved his conversion rate in the last five years, reaching 39 centuries and 66 fifties in Test cricket compared to 17 hundreds and 49 fifties till 2020.
According to a report by ESPNCricinfo, if Joe Root maintains his current scoring rate, he would need around 23 to 25 more Tests to overtake Tendulkar. If variables like dip in form or fewer innings due to match situations are taken into consideration then the estimated matches will be 28 to 30. Report claims that England has 16 more Tests to play in the current World Test Championship cycle, so Root will have to feature in at least three or four more series in the next WTC cycle to have enough innings under his name. Prediction on these lines, the report predicted that this landmark could be achieved by Root sometime in 2028.
