Joe Root vs Sachin Tendulkar: Who is ahead after 145 Test matches? Full analysis

Joe Root is surely the best red-ball batsman at present and is slowly becoming this generation's best Test batter. In the ongoing test series against Sri Lanka, he surpassed Sri Alaister Cook's record for most test centuries for England (33) while notching up his 34 career test ton. With this ton, Root now has scored 17 test centuries since the turn of 2021. 

The perfect angle of Joe Root's record-breaking century doesn't exis- pic.twitter.com/zXeojPXpF0

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 31, 2024

Before Joe Root, Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson and Steve Smith dominated the charts in test cricket. But, the experienced batter has turned everything upside down after handing the captaincy to Ben Stokes in the purest format.

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In the 90s, 2000s and 2010s, it was all about players like Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid and Ricky Ponting, who dominated all the charts along with Kumar Sangakkara was the latest among them to call it a day. However, the 'God of Cricket', Sachin Tendulkar, prevailed over everyone to consider himself the most successful test batter with the most test runs and most test centuries.

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Sachin finished his career with a record 15921 test runs in 200 test matches at an average of 53.78 including a record 51 test centuries. At the time of his retirement, no one ever thought anyone could break his record for the most test runs.

But the way Joe Root has performed in the last three years, it looks like the impossible might be possible for the English batter. Root at the moment has 12,377 test runs after 145 test matches at an average of 50.93. 

Root is currently 32 years old and nearing to 33th year of his life. With nearly 4-5 years of test cricket left in him (considering he is fit), he can go close to Sachin Tendulkar's record.

Root now only needs 3544 runs to surpass Sachin and with him averaging over 50, we can assume that he would need at least 70 innings or 35 test matches to get close to that record. If England plays at least 8-10 test matches a year, and Root can perform at his best, we might see the impossible being possible.

Joe Root vs Sachin Tendulkar: After 145 Test matches

After the comparison, we can see that Joe Root is 761 runs ahead of Sachin Tendulkar after 145 test matches for each. Now, playing 200 test matches would be nearly impossible for Root and Sachin's record would face a test time only if Root stays for long enough.