Joe Root might have stepped away from the Test captaincy, but there is still plenty to expect as he walks into the next phase of his career.
After 117 Tests, Root is on the cusp of becoming just the second England player to cross the 10,000-run barrier. Only Alastair Cook has scored more, but Root is just 2,583 runs behind Cook’s career tally (12,472). Given the form Root’s in, it shouldn’t take a lot of time: he scored 1,708 runs alone in 2021.
The centuries column, too, isn’t too far behind: Root overtook Kevin Pietersen in March to claim second spot among England players, and currently has 25 tons, eight behind Cook’s tally. That’s equal to the number of hundreds he’s hit since the start of 2021.
At 31, Root seemingly has plenty of time in front of him, and is in the midst of what is considered the prime years of a Test batter. Across his decade-long career, Root has played about 11-12 Tests on an average every year: at that rate, he’s likely to have crossed 150 Tests in about three years from now. And, if he continues to score at his current average of 49.19, he is likely to surpass Cook’s tally by then.
But Root’s eyes won’t just be on Cook’s tally, since age is on his side to set his sights on something bigger. With captaincy behind him, the next phase could see him bat with even more freedom, something that his long-time teammate Stuart Broad recently prophesized. The next few years could unlock a different dimension of Root, the batter, even taking him close to what’s considered by many as unsurmountable achievements: Sachin Tendulkar’s Test run-tally.
It isn’t exactly wise to compare both batters, given the eras they played in and their differing roles: Tendulkar featured at four for the major chunk of his career, while Root’s also played prominent roles at three and five, and in a weaker batting line-up, which has offered him less support but more opportunities to bat twice. Still, after exactly 117 Tests (189 innings), Tendulkar had collected 9,543 runs at 56.13, and while there isn’t a big deficit in Root’s runs (in 27 more innings), the conversion rate was better for Tendulkar, having hit 33 centuries by then. When Tendulkar was the same age as Root in 2004 – 31 years and four months – he’d played 114 Tests, scoring 9,470 runs at 57.39, with 33 tons.
Age-wise, though, things aren't as straightforward: Tendulkar broke into Test cricket as a 16-year-old, and played until he was 40, finishing as the only player with 200 Test appearances. Tendulkar's longevity also included regular injury layoffs, especially in the early 2000s. Root's played more Tests on an average every year: he's clocked 12 or more Tests in six calendar years, compared to Tendulkar, who had only four such years in a quarter-of-a-century long career.
Through plenty of ups and downs, Tendulkar had nine calendar years where he averaged 60 or more – Root's had three so far. The superior career average is also a highlight for the rest of the 10k club: among the 13 members, only Cook and Mahela Jayawardene (49.84) averaged less than 50. If Root maintains his current average, though, and plays the same number of innings as Tendulkar – 329 – (and has the same not-outs: 33), he'd end up with 16,183 runs, taking him past the India great's tally. Plenty of hypotheticals in that.
Root had an extraordinary 2021, the third-best year any batter has had in terms of runs, but if he does manage even about a 1,000 runs every calendar year, it'll take him just over six more years from now to clip past Tendulkar's tally – which is about 37 years of age. If we take, on average, 22 innings a year, he'd need to average about 45.50 every year to close the gap in six years' time. He's averaged more than that in five of eight years since 2014. In the same period, though, getting past the magic number of 51 centuries will require him to clock just over four centuries a year, a feat he's achieved just once.
Again, plenty of assumptions there: it remains to be seen if Root plays until his late thirties, or manages to maintain the same rate of appearances and run-scoring as he advances deeper into his career. Given the after-effects of the burden that came with leading the side in the last five years, and England's own nose-diving form in the last year and a half, the next phase won't begin easy. But Root is known to thrive in crisis: even last year's collective disappointments couldn't deter him from enjoying a record-breaking 2021. Tendulkar's record might or might not be broken, but Root's already on course to end up in the upper echelons of Test batsmanship.
