Joe Root: England’s elegant Test record-breaker

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LONDON – With an immaculate on drive for four, Joe Root surpassed Alastair Cook to become the highest run-scorer in English Test history, cementing his status as one of the greatest batsmen of the modern era.
Root’s innings in the first Test against Pakistan in Multan takes him past Cook’s total of 12,472 runs to fifth on the all-time list topped by India’s Sachin Tendulkar, with power to add.
The elegant Yorkshireman, 33, is a throwback to a different era of batting, an orthodox “touch” player who does not need to smash the ball around to score quickly.
Former England captain Cook hailed Root as “England’s greatest” and a “genius” when he surpassed his own record tally of 33 Test hundreds for England in August.
Another former skipper, Nasser Hussain, has described him as “England’s generational talent” with the bat.
Root played for the same Sheffield Collegiate club as Michael Vaughan, following the ex-England captain into the Yorkshire first team.
He made just 14 on his low-key first-class debut against a Loughborough University team in 2010 but after two encouraging seasons with Yorkshire he was picked to tour India in 2012.
England spinner Graeme Swann likened the baby-faced batsman to a team mascot but Root seized his chance when it came, making a patient 73 from 229 balls in the final Test in Nagpur.
His rise continued with a first Test hundred the following year against New Zealand at his Headingley home ground, before a maiden Ashes century at Lord’s two months later.
There was a dip in Australia, where Root has still to score a Test century, as he lost form during England’s 2013/14 Ashes whitewash.
Root, dropped for the fifth Test in Sydney, responded in style back on home soil with a double hundred against Sri Lanka at Lord’s followed by two centuries against India.
Runs have flowed consistently for the Yorkshireman despite concerns at times over his conversion rate — the number of times he went on to score hundreds after reaching fifty.
 
– ‘Big Four’ –
 
Root is in an elite bracket as a member of the modern game’s “Big Four” batsmen alongside Australia’s Steve Smith, India’s Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson.
The Yorkshireman, who has also taken 69 Test wickets with his spin bowling, succeeded Cook — the only other England batsman to have scored 10,000 Test runs — as captain in 2017.
He went on to lead England in more Tests (64) and achieve more wins (27) than any previous skipper but found himself in charge of a struggling team.
He maintained his own standards with the bat during his time at the helm, most strikingly in 2021, when he scored 1,708 runs at an average of 61 and was named Test Cricketer of the Year.
Root’s tenure as skipper ended in disappointment in April 2022 following a run of just one win from 17 matches, with Ben Stokes taking charge.
The former skipper has proved indispensible under the new regime — prior to the Pakistan tour he had scored nine hundreds in 29 Tests since relinquishing the captaincy.
Root has occasionally become unstuck while flirting with a more risky style in the ultra-attacking “Bazball” era under Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.
But he has largely played his own game, with a rare talent to keep the scoreboard ticking over by playing in a classical style, relatively risk-free style.
Root’s current Test batting average is more than 50, the mark of an all-time great, and he remains a mainstay of England’s one-day team.
Four players are above Root on the all-time list — Tendulkar leads the way with 15,921 runs, ahead of Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid.
Root still has a long way to go to catch Tendulkar but few would doubt his hunger and ability to finish his career right at the top.
“There is a sense of inevitability around Joe Root when he bats, a sense that he is always going to score runs,” said Cook.
jw/bsp 
By John Weaver
AFP