Joe Root's rich vein of form has seen him surpass Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, and Ricky Ponting to be now placed second in the all-time Test run-scorer list. Only Sachin Tendulkar stands between the English batter and a world record of being the highest Test run-scorer. While a lot of experts have given the veteran a real shot at surpassing the Indian master, Jos Buttler feels Root is not aiming to go past Tendulkar's Test record.
Currently, the former England skipper has reached 13,409 runs, leaving him now 2,512 adrift of Tendulkar's Test record of 15,921 Test runs. However, Buttler says while the landmark is not improbable for his English teammate to breach, he does not think of that while he is scoring and winning games for England.
“He’s not hunting down Sachin Tendulkar because that’s definitely not the way he plays his cricket or how he sees it,” Butler said on his YouTube channel, For the Love of Cricket. “But he is number two on an incredibly elite list, with what seems like, if he stays fit, quite an attainable kind of thing, which is absolutely mindblowing.”
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“He has got 21 hundreds since COVID. He is obviously in the form of his life, and it is awesome to watch,” he added.
Hunger is never an issue with Joe Root: Jos Buttler
Unlike other experts, even Stuart Broad posed the same question to Buttler, asking if Joe Root thinks about the Test record, considering he is only 34 years of age and has never lost form.
“Do you sit there and think it’s a given that he is going to do it? He is 34, going on to 35. Not many players have ever had a loss of form or an injury problem, but he has just always been fit and scoring runs. So is there any part of you that thinks ‘he might not get there’?”
Buttler replied to the former pacer's question by stating that hunger has never really been an issue with Root, since he is always passionate and determined to be England's best batter.
“Hunger is never an issue I see with Root. He isn’t going to wake up in 2-3 years and think he doesn’t have the love for batting or playing for England. He has just been playing so well, even during that period when England won one game in 17 and he was captain.”
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“But he just doesn’t see it like that at all. Which I think is the great thing about him. He just loves playing and winning matches. So it’s going to be pretty cool to watch whether he stays at No. 2 or scales that Everest and goes to No.1.”
Currently, Root has scored 403 runs in four Tests, scoring two centuries. He will undoubtedly look to add more when the fifth Test gets underway at the Oval from Thursday, July 31.
