It seems like a different age when I first raved about a young Yorkshireman breaking into the England Test team in 2012. For his county, he seemed to have all the attributes of a world-class batsman, notably timing, all-round strokeplay, temperament and decision-making. In other words, all the basic qualities which enable a cricketer to succeed in all formats.
Twelve years later, at the age of 33, Joe Root has achieved the inevitable landmark of England’s highest run scorer, even continuing his innings in the heat of Multan to break his personal best, with 262. At the end of this match, the records will also name him as part of the country’s top Test partnership and the world’s fourth highest innings total.
Yet, for all the statistics, what I like most about Root is his unflashy attitude to his profession. It’s also why I warmed more to his former team-mates Iain Bell or Alastair Cook rather than egomaniacs like Kevin Pietersen. He captained England in Tests 64 times in his usual unfussy style but the scintillating form of 2015 and 2016 could never be recaptured and between 2018 and 2020 Root entered a relatively lean spell. All great players have those, of course and, since handing the captain’s reins to Ben Stokes, he has blossomed once more.
Some of Root’s contemporaries were considered slightly superior for their ability to convert fifties into hundreds but he has also improved this side of his game. Few players in recent years have even stayed in the international arena after resigning as skipper but he has maintained that dedication to his craft and country for the benefit of all.
Bazball was never going to faze Joe, either. He simply and seamlessly brought his top-class white-ball ability into the Test arena. The likes of Duckett, Brook, Smith et al may churn out innings at a run a ball, but Root can, alongside those impeccably drilled drives, cuts and pulls, manufacture 21st-century shots like reverse sweeps with the best of ‘em. He has shown he can perform in short series, global tournaments, at home and in Asia, although the Aussie quicks have in the past had his measure.
As for his Test career, I see no reason why a fit Joe Root can’t surpass Sachin Tendulkar’s one impregnable run aggregate of 15,921. With England’s fondness for the supreme test of cricketing competition, those lasting five days, and aged only 33, he will quickly ease past Dravid, Ponting and Kallis and surely gobble up those 3000 additional runs to pass the Indian’s tally and set a new target that ‘no man will ever reach’.
That’s what they said about Tendulkar but records are there to be broken. Only the ICC’s increasing thirst for one-dayers and the ECB potentially heading down the same muddy path can prevent future challenges to Root, and they will come only from England. Harry Brook is one possibility. His fledgling Test career has yielded similar results to that of Joe Root a decade earlier although the younger man from Keighley lost a few years to his instinctive preference for T20 stuff. Now, under the tutelage of McCullum, Stokes and co, he has become the embodiment of Bazball, even more so than Stokes himself. Aged 25, he will require a long, unbroken career, probably with a rest from the IPL and other franchise cricket, to get anywhere close to 15,000 Test runs. However, when you can strike 317 at almost six an over in a Pakistan summer, don’t write him off! Keep him in tandem with Joe Root and the Yorkshire pair may well set many more records around the world.
