What Root’s attack on Sachin’s record doesn’t tell us

Calcutta: Ricky Ponting believes England batsman Joe Root can break Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most Test runs, a record held by the Indian legend since 2008 after overtaking Brian Lara. And he might be right. “He is 33 years old… (more than) 3000 runs back. It depends on how many Test matches they play, but if they play 10 to 14 Test matches a year and score 800 to 1000 runs a year, then that means he is only three or four years away from doing that. Then he would be 37 (years old),” Ponting was quoted as saying by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Virat Kohli and Steve Smith are 35. Even if their fitness allows it, it’s unlikely that either of them will outlast Root. Kane Williamson is 34 and is over 100 runs behind Kohli on the all-time list, but even he is unlikely to be as close to Root, especially because New Zealand’s Test schedule is rarely as full as that of India, Australia or England. Considering batters have longer careers, it’s more or less certain that Root will be the highest run-scorer among the Fab Four. But does that necessarily make him the most productive or even the best batter of this era? Let’s look at the numbers.

Root, Smith and Williamson are tied with 32 centuries, while Kohli has 29 centuries. However, looking at the fifties column, Root has a clear lead with 63 half-centuries, almost miles ahead of Smith (41), Williamson (34) and Kohli (30). So over the course of over ten careers, the cumulative effect of fifties has undoubtedly consistently supported Root’s Test curve, despite scoring relatively fewer centuries in the early years.

However, things changed from 2019 onwards. First of all, Root played his last T20I for England that year. Of the 54 ODIs England have played since winning the 2019 ODI World Cup, Root has featured in 40. While he cannot strictly be called a Test specialist, Root definitely has more time than Kohli, Smith and Williamson to conserve for the longest format. And that is reflected in his Test results, especially in 2021 when he scored 1708 runs – the third-highest ever by a batsman in a calendar year.

Root has also been given more opportunities. Over the last five years, England have played more Tests (61) than India (46) and Australia (44) and Root has made the most of them. While he has been England’s mainstay on the subcontinent, Root’s highest achievements during this period have been at home, in New Zealand and in the West Indies. Not to mention that the race for the four has also been derailed at various times by Smith being banned for a year following the ball-tampering scandal and Kohli not scoring a hundred in a Test for more than three years.

Also crucial has been the recent rise in Root’s success rate. Before the 2019 ODI World Cup, Root had scored 16 Test hundreds and 41 fifties. Since then, he has scored 16 hundreds and 22 fifties. “Four or five years ago, he was making a lot of fifties and struggling to go on and make hundreds, and recently it’s gone the other way,” Ponting said. “Almost every time he gets to 50 now, he goes on and makes a big hundred. So that’s been the real turnaround for him.”

To be fair, Kohli, Smith and Williamson have all displayed this conversion rate throughout their careers. At first glance, Virat and Williamson’s numbers might seem like they were missing a few fifties, but their conversion rates (a hundred almost every other fifty) are comparable to some of the best of all time – Mohammad Azharduddin had 22 hundreds and 21 fifties, Michael Clarke 28 hundreds and 27 fifties, Mathew Hayden 30 hundreds and 29 fifties, Younis Khan 34 hundreds and 33 fifties.

A more compelling argument is the manner in which the Fab Four have scored their hundreds. Kohli, despite that three-year lull, averages one every 6.58 innings, Smith, despite his one-year ban, every 6.09 innings, while Williamson averages an incredible 5.5 innings. Root, despite the recent upturn, still averages a hundred every 8.15 innings. Compare that to Tendulkar (6.45), Ponting (7), Kumar Sangakkara (6.13), Khan (6.26), Sunil Gavaskar (6.29), Lara (6.82) and Hayden (6.13), and it is clear that Root has an uphill task ahead of him to maintain his current form for the rest of his foreseeable career, to not only break Tendulkar’s record but also match Kohli, Smith and Williamson on other fronts.