Former Australia skipper Mark Taylor has tipped England's charismatic cricketer Joe Root to surpass Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar's record for most runs in Test match history. Root, who handed over England's Test captaincy reins to all-rounder Ben Stokes to concentrate on his batting, scored a fine unbeaten century to guide the home team to a five-wicket win against the Kane Williamson-led New Zealand at Lord's on Sunday to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
In guiding England to a morale-boosting win, Root surpassed the 10,000-run mark to become just the 14th cricketer to score 10,000 Test runs. Root has a total of 10,015 Test runs and is 5,906 behind Tendulkar, who notched up 15,921 in a career spanning 200 Tests. Australian legend Taylor felt that at 31, Root has many more years of Test cricket left in him, adding that Tendulkar's record was "very achievable". "Root has minimum five years left in him, so I think Tendulkar's record is very achievable," opined Taylor on Sky Sports.
"Root is batting as well as I have ever seen him bat over the last 18 months to two years. He is in the prime of his career, so there is 15,000 runs-plus for him if he stays healthy," added Taylor. England great Alastair Cook was also all praise for the former Test skipper, saying on BBC Test Match Special, "I just love (Root's) batting." Root is only the second cricketer from his country to have reached 10,000 Test runs after Cook, who quit international cricket in 2018, having scored 12,472 runs.