Joe Root overtook Alastair Cook on the leading Test run-scorers' list on the third day of England's opening Test match in Pakistan – and went on to record his highest-ever Test score. Only four players have scored more Test runs than the former England captain. Where will he finish by the end of his career?
Pakistan scored 556 batting first in Multan, leaving England with a steep challenge to bat their way back into the game. Root's partnerships with first Zak Crawley and then Ben Duckett were essential to making sure England would most likely at least avoid the follow-on. But it was his record 454-run partnership with Harry Brook - England's highest-ever - that defined the match. He went past Cook with his 71st run of the innings, a punched four down the ground taking him to 12,473 runs.
Next on Root's radar on the overall list is Rahul Dravid (13,288), who in turn is one run behind Jacques Kallis (13,289). Thus, once Root bridges the 800-ish run gap to Dravid, he will also overtake Kallis, putting him in third position. With two more Tests in Pakistan, three in New Zealand, followed by a five-Test home summer against India, with a one-off Test against Zimbabwe at the start of next summer, Root could leapfrog two places by the end of the 2025 home summer by his current rate of run-scoring. Equally, if he doesn't quite manage that, he should go past Dravid and Kallis at some point during the 2025/26 Ashes series.
After Kallis, Ricky Ponting is a further 89 runs adrift in second place. Again, he should be passable for Root during the 2025/26 Ashes, with 16 Test matches between the ongoing one in Multan and the end of that Ashes series for Root to makeup the 900-ish run difference.
Root's career average is almost exactly 50 runs per dismissal, but he has been well above that for the last two years. Thus, if he scores runs at the rate he has done, he should be past Ponting by the end of the Ashes, barring injury or a significant dip in form.
Can Root overtake Sachin?
Tendulkar's overall record is 2,543 runs above Ponting, and 3,448 runs above Root at Lunch in Multan on day three. That is a significant amount of runs to make-up over the remainder of Root's career, considering he will turn 35 during the 2025/26 Ashes series.
After the 16 remaining Tests by the end of the Ashes, the ICC Future Tours Programme has England scheduled for three Tests in Sri Lanka, before a 2026 home summer consisting of three Test matches each against New Zealand and Pakistan. They will then have three away Tests against South Africa as their final assignment in 2026, meaning England will play a further nine Tests in 2026 after the Ashes.
If Joe Root continued to score at his current rate (84 runs per Test), he would need to play another 47 Tests to pass Sachin Tendulkar as the leading run scorer in Test cricket. At his current rate of around 12 Tests a year, that would take about four more years.
— Ben Jones (@benjonescricket) July 21, 2024
Going off his rough rate of around 90 runs per Test match over the last four years, Root would need another 40 Test matches to surpass Tendulkar's record. Given that England normally play upwards of 12 Test a year, and will have played 28 between now and the end of 2026, Root will likely have to play until at least the end of 2027, by which time he will be 37, to catch Tendulkar.
In the modern era, it is extremely rare for English batters to play Test cricket past their 36th birthdays. In fact, this century, Alec Stewart is the only English top seven batter to play more than a handful of Tests after turning 36. This may in part be due to the relentlessness of England's diet of international cricket, but as James Anderson showed in playing for England up to the age of 41, with a carefully managed individual schedule, almost anything is possible.
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