Former England Test captain Joe Root is in red-hot form these days. The 33-year-old right-handed batter, who sits at No. 1 position in the ICC Test batter’s ranking, scored twin centuries in the recently concluded second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s to break Alastair Cook’s record of most Test centuries for England in Test cricket. He is now close to breaking Cook’s one more record and becoming the all-time leading run scorer for Poms in the five-day format of the game.
Root’s superb form in the red-ball format of the game has earned him massive praise from fans, former greats, and experts of the game. Many former England stars have called him the greatest cricketer of all time, but when former Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik was asked to pick the better Test batsman between him and Indian superstar Virat Kohli, he ignored the Englishman.
“Look, numbers will tell you it’s Joe Root, but my heart, the fact that he (Kohli) is someone that I’ve seen play in close quarters for the longest time now, over a decade. And I know how he loves playing those big moments, big series. Somebody has asked him questions. He will come back to you with an answer so strong, you’ll be like, wow, why did I even ask that question? If I was given a choice, who would bat for my life? Virat Kohli, no doubt,” he said on Cricbuzz’s AskCB with DK show.
Root, who made his international debut for England during a Test match against India in Nagpur on December 13, 2012, will be in action for the Ollie Pope-led side in the third Test against Sri Lanka at the Oval on Friday. During the last Test of the ongoing three-match series, he will have a chance to create history and become the first cricketer in the world to score 5000 runs in the World Test Championship.
Root, who is the all-time leading run scorer in WTC history, has 4948 runs to his name in 57 matches played so far. He needs 52 more runs to cross the 5000 mark.
