How close is Joe Root to Sachin Tendulkar’s Test record? Breakdown of numbers

Sachin Tendulkar and Joe Root Joe Root’s outing against New Zealand in the 2nd Test was not one of those innings that usually find a place in the highlights package.Scores of 21 and 18 at Trent Bridge did little to prevent England slipping to a 1-2 series defeat after taking an early lead. Ben Stokes’ decision to retire from Test cricket dominated the headlines and England were left searching for answers after another series that promised much but delivered little. Before the match was over, another number was quietly moved.Root’s career now stands at 14,114 Test runs from 166 Tests. Only one man has scored more runs in the history of Test cricket. Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of 15,921, once comfortably out of sight, is now 1,807 runs.This in itself does not necessarily mean that the record is in jeopardy. Cricket was already here.When Ricky Ponting passed 13,000 runs, there was talk of whether he could get there. The same thing happened when Jacques Kallis kept piling up the runs season after season. Kumar Sangakkara’s extraordinary end to his career briefly reopened the debate. Alastair Cook, England’s leading run-scorer before Root, played 161 Tests and retired with over 12,000 runs.One by one they rose up the list. One by one they finished well short.For most of the last decade, Tendulkar’s record has remained exactly where it was when he retired in 2013 – visible, admired and rarely discussed as something that could realistically be surpassed.However, Root changed that. Not just because he reached 14,000 runs, he outscored everyone else. Simply put, the chase is on and the obvious way to look at it is through simple arithmetic. Root needs another 1,807 runs and England have a busy Test schedule for the next two seasons.He remains their best batsman and, unlike many players in their thirties, there is little sign of a permanent decline in form or fitness. And with the way the runs are piling up, the record could appear in the next 18-21 Tests if he maintains his career tally.But can he finally reach that mark? And where does he currently stand in the pursuit of it compared to others who may have had a chance to reach the top?Take Ponting, Kallis or Cook.All three have passed 12,000 test runs. All three have spent years among the leading batsmen in the world. Yet by the time they reached their mid-thirties, the gulf was too great for Tendulkar. They still scored, but not quickly enough to seriously threaten the record.And this is where Root’s is different. At 35, he has already scored more runs than Tendulkar did at the same age. Age is somewhat of an unusual way of comparing batting careers. Most records are measured in games, innings, or runs. However, age often tells a different story.Tendulkar made his Test debut at 16 and spent almost a quarter of a century in international cricket. Root came much later, at 21, but has scored so consistently over the past decade that he has virtually erased that five-year lead.That’s what makes this chase unlike any other. For the first time since Tendulkar retired, the record is not being discussed as the next batting hit the milestone.However, there is another side to the story. Because while Root is ahead on the timeline, many of the batting numbers that define greatness still belong to Tendulkar.Tendulkar’s career average is higher. Every time he went to bat, he scored more runs. He reached major milestones in fewer innings and converted fifty-plus scores into hundreds more often.Even as Root became the youngest batsman to complete 10,000 Test runs, Tendulkar achieved the milestone in fewer innings. The same pattern continued for 14000. Root got there younger. Tendulkar got there faster. And what really worked in Root’s favor is the fact that England have played more Test cricket than almost any other side in the last decade. Root rarely missed a match. More importantly, he rarely disappeared for long.Every great batter goes through skinny patches. Ponting did it. Cook did it. Even Tendulkar had periods when hundreds dried up. Root’s remarkable consistency since 2021 prevented that.He continued to score runs regardless of the opposition or the conditions, and just as importantly, he continued to make himself available. One shift becomes another test. One series becomes another home run. Over the course of fourteen years, these other opportunities accumulated into a lead that none of Tendulkar’s previous challengers had been able to build. After 25 Tests, Root established himself in England’s middle order. He crossed 4000 runs in his 50s. And the milestones kept coming – 75 Tests, 100 Tests, 125 and then 150. At each stage, the gap between him and Tendulkar narrowed, not because of one spectacular season, but because the accumulation never stopped.There are other comparisons that underline how differently the two careers developed. Tendulkar has scored more Test runs away from home than in India, averaging slightly better overseas than on familiar grounds. It remains one of the less celebrated aspects of his career.Root’s distribution is different. His strongest numbers came in England, although one opposition shaped his record more than any other. Against India, Root has scored more than 3,300 Test runs and 13 centuries, making it the most prolific match of his career. Australia remain the only major opposition against whom his returns do not quite match the rest of his record.While those numbers help explain the career, they don’t necessarily explain the record. Hence, it helps to look at how much Tendulkar scored after turning 35. By the time Tendulkar reached 35, he had achieved almost everything a Test batter could have hoped for. He had crossed 12,000 runs but still had nearly 4,000 runs ahead of him.These years rarely dominate the conversation about Tendulkar’s career. Fans remember the straight drive in Perth, the duels with Shane Warne and the Desert Storm innings in Sharjah, even though they came in one-day cricket. However, the record itself was protected by what happened afterwards.He played on. He kept scoring. And that is the stage Root has just entered. The numbers suggest he has given himself the best chance anyone has had since Tendulkar retired.They do not guarantee anything beyond that. The remaining 1,807 runs are unlikely to be decided by one fruitful summer or one overseas tour. They will depend on something much more difficult to predict: fitness, selection and whether Root can avoid the gradual decline that eventually catches up with every Test batter.England’s schedule certainly gives him an opportunity. And that’s why Root’s pursuit is different from those surrounding Ponting, Kallis or Cook. Previous challengers have struggled to catch Tendulkar’s total. Root has reached the stage of his career that matters.Ahead of us is the stage that allowed 15,921 in the first place. Whether it will eventually get there will not be known until the next two or three years.For now, one thing has changed.For more than a decade, Tendulkar’s record remained untouched as no one managed to reach this mark with enough runs in a row.Root does and the chase is no longer hypothetical. It finally became a reality.