Root— a slow-burn champion often revealing how Tests are the real deal

On a distant March day in Ahmedabad, the cricketing world gazed in awe. It was 1987 and Sunil Gavaskar late-cut Pakistani spinner Ijaz Fakih at the Motera, a venue that has now become the gigantic Narendra Modi Stadium. With that shot, Gavaskar became the first batter to reach 10000 runs in Tests.

It was a statistic that was deemed impossible to scale. But over the years many traipsed past that mark, starting with Allan Border and it is a club that now has 15 members. Leading the pack is Sachin Tendulkar at 15921, and the next man is Joe Root, who went past 14000 runs during the recent second Test that England lost to New Zealand at the Oval. Currently Root has amassed 14075.

Often clubbed with Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson as the decisive batters of the current generation, Root found his own groove. Kohli only plays ODIs these days while Williamson has just retired, and that leaves Root and his Ashes rival Smith as the current great batters in Test whites. The Aussie with a yield of 10763 remains far behind, while Root after 35 summers, has Tendulkar’s mountain to chase.

In the pantheon of great England Test batters featuring Geoffrey Boycott, Graham Gooch, David Gower, Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen, Root has surged ahead with a relentless quest for runs. Having made his debut against India at Nagpur in 2012, he has been England’s constant in cricket’s longest format, more so after spearhead James Anderson retired.

Just like Williamson, Root seems unobtrusive at the crease. He goes about his game with a quiet determination and the runs are picked at will. There is an air of Yorkshire resilience about him, much like Boycott, and he even got an Ashes hundred finally in Australia.

To last this long, dally with captaincy, survive multiple Ashes battles, and get through the microscopic scrutiny from an unflinching media, is never easy. Root has done that while retaining a schoolboy’s demeanour and a half-smile.

The whispers about him perhaps going past Tendulkar, have gained volume. It would depend on Root retaining form, remaining fit and having the drive to extend his career. In a cricketing universe swaying to the transient pleasures of T20s, Root has been a slow-burn champion, often revealing how Tests are the real deal. 14000 is done, more peaks await.