Joe Root's 35th Test Century: Can England's Run-Machine Surpass The God Of Cricket?

Sachin Tendulkar and Joe Root- (Source: CricFan/X.com)Sachin Tendulkar and Joe Root- (Source: CricFan/X.com)

On Wednesday, October 9, former England skipper Joe Root further closed the gap on Sachin Tendulkar as he brought up his 35th Test hundred after a brilliant knock against Pakistan in the ongoing Test at the Multan Stadium. 

Root is in the form of his life as it is his fifth Test hundred in 2024. In the ongoing match, the former England skipper scored a 167-ball century, which featured seven fours. After his hundred, the internet buzzed with him likely to surpass Sachin Tendulkar. 

Root has 12521 runs in 147 matches and requires just 3401 runs to become the leading run-getter in Test cricket. But will Root surpass Tendulkar? This article will analyse the probabilities. 

Joe Root vs Sachin Tendulkar: The Better Player After 35 Centuries

It is worth noting that Joe Root is 33 years old, and has already stitched 35 centuries, averaging 51.10 in Test cricket. Talking about Sachin, he smashed his 35th Test hundred on December 10, 2005, against Sri Lanka at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi when he was just 32 years old. 

Further, Sachin took just 200 innings to script 35 centuries, while Root achieved the same in 268 innings. If we go by the runs scored, Sachin had 10,285 runs when he hit his 35th Test century but averaged 55, which is more than Joe Root as of now. 

After 268 innings, Sachin had 13234 runs and averaged 55.37 runs. In fact, on his 268th innings, Sachin smashed his 45th century and the only negative was that he was on the wrong end of 30s and age was not on his side. 

Player
Runs After 268 Innings
Average
Joe Root12521
51.10
Sachin Tendulkar1323455.37

Conclusion

Looking at the stats of the two players, Sachin was quicker in smashing his 35th-century and had scored more runs than Root when he played his 268th Test innings. Not only the runs, but Sachin had a better average. Thus, looking by these stats, it is unlikely that Root will go past Sachin in run-tally.

However, age is on his side and Sachin was 38 when he played his 268th Test innings. Thus, if Root stays fit, he can go past Sachin. But at this stage, Sachin had a better record than Root.