Virat Kohli’s last Test ton has come in March of 2023 against Australia in Ahmedabad. Since then the Indian talisman has been going through a quiet period in the longer format of the game. However, England’s Joe Root on the other hand has kept compiling runs and is just 3519 runs away from Sachin Tendulkar’s all-time highest Test runs of 15,921.
“I just don’t think Virat is going to get there. I think he’s lost his momentum and the momentum that he’s lost has been for a number of years now. He’s got to turn around in the next 10 Test matches, or he’s going to drop off,” former Australian cricketer Brad Hogg said on his YouTube channel.
“Joe Root has 146 Test matches with 12,000 runs. Sachin Tendulkar made nearly 16,000 runs in 200 Test matches. That’s 4,000 runs in 66 Tests. I think Joe Root can go close to toppling that,” he added. “Watch out, Joe Root is on the move to beat Sachin Tendulkar. I think quietly he’ll have that in the back of his mind to try and topple that little unique stat.”
However, Root himself when asked about the possibility of crossing Tendulkar, emphasized the importance of scoring runs for teams to win rather than personal milestones. “I just want to play, and try, and do my bit for the team and score the runs as many as I can and see where we get to. But there’s no better feeling I mean, it’s amazing when you score 100, you’d be lying if you said it wasn’t,” said Root speaking on a video released by England Cricket earlier.
While Adam Gilchrist has opted for Virat Kohli in both white-ball formats over Root as a better batter, when it came to the traditional format the former Australia player picked Root over Kohli given the English batter’s form in the last few years. “In the last short while. Over a long period, Joe Root’s stats are…, well he’s the best England has ever had,” Gilchrist said on Club Prairie Fire Podcast.
