Catching Sachin Tendulkar’s unfathomable 15,921: Joe Root is on his way

New Delhi: Joe Root has shared the field with Sachin Tendulkar only once -- on his Test debut in Nagpur in December 2012.

Sachin, 39 at the time, was in the twilight of his career. He played six more Tests before retiring a year later. In that Nagpur Test, Root, just days shy of his 22nd birthday, stamped his class against India’s four-pronged spin attack, scoring 73 and 20 not out.


Few realised it then, but the pursuit had already begun, with Root quietly setting off on Tendulkar's trail.

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Cut to the present, Root has started 2026 with a century, his second of the ongoing Ashes in Australia. The England batter now needs 1,978 more runs to surpass Tendulkar’s record. Root's Test tally currently reads: 13,943 runs from 163 Tests.

Root is hunting down Sachin’s record

At 35, Joe Root is showing no signs of slowing down.

Following his century at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), former England captain Michael Vaughan said on Cricbuzz that Root will break Tendulkar’s record.

“There is no doubt Root will break Sachin’s record. The real question is whether he will be back for the next Ashes in Australia, which is four years away,” Vaughan said.

England’s Test calendar is mapped out until the end of the 2027 home summer. This year brings three home Tests each against New Zealand and Pakistan. The 2026–27 winter includes three Tests in South Africa, two in Bangladesh, and a one-off 150th anniversary Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). In 2027, England will play seven Tests, including another Ashes series. In total, that presents a possible 20 Tests over the next 18 months.

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has also backed Root to seriously challenge Tendulkar’s unrivalled Test legacy. Speaking during commentary in the India vs England fourth Test at Old Trafford last year, Shastri said Root has time firmly on his side.

“Look at his age (35). Look at the number of matches. He’s got about 40 Tests left. Sachin played 200 Tests. Root has played around 160. He’s still young. He has four years of cricket ahead of him. And what will separate him and Tendulkar will be around 3,000 runs. When you’re hot, you’re hot, and he has age on his side,” Shastri said.

Professional sport rarely follows a neat script. Root has enjoyed remarkable fortune so far, missing just two Tests since his debut, never because of an injury.

Root vs Kohli vs Smith vs Williamson

Legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar had famously said that Root was a notch below the other memembers of the famed Fab Four — Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson.

Gavaskar was not wrong.

In January 2021, the contrast among the Fab Four was stark. Kohli had 27 Test centuries from 73 matches, Smith 26 from 70, Williamson 23 from 64, while Root lagged behind with just 17 hundreds despite having played 96 Tests.

More tellingly, Root had accumulated 48 half-centuries -- more than Kohli and Smith’s combined tally -- underlining how often he got starts without converting them into a triple digit score.

Reaching 50 was never Root’s problem. Time and again, he cruised through the first half of an innings, only to fall before reaching the landmark that defines elite Test batters.

Fast forward to 2025, and the narrative has flipped completely. Over the past four years, Root has struck 24 centuries and just 17 fifties across 67 Tests. By comparison, Williamson has ten hundreds in 24 matches, Smith 11 in 47, while Kohli managed only three in 36 Tests before retiring from the format in May 2025.

Root has credited his resurgence to work done during the Covid-19 pandemic and detailed conversations with former England captain Nasser Hussain.

“I actually spoke to Nass quite a bit,” Root said on Sky Sports. “I asked if I could get some footage and looked at my modes of dismissal to see if there were any patterns — the different ways I was getting out at various stages of my innings.

“Early in my career, a lot of it was about technique — where my hands were, where my head was, whether I was lined up right, whether my trigger was correct. In this second phase, it’s been more about managing risk and eliminating as many modes of dismissal as possible while still producing the highest output.”

In 2025, Root stands alone among his peers as the only realistic contender to chase down Sachin Tendulkar’s all-time Test run record.

Sachin vs Root in numbers

Age, numbers and timing are beginning to align for Root in a way few would have imagined a decade ago.

At 34, just before the Sydney Test, Root had accumulated 13,777 runs at an average of 50.83 across 296 innings in 162 Tests. At the same age, Tendulkar stood at 11,782 runs at 55.31 after 147 Tests -- fewer matches, a higher average, but significantly fewer runs.

By the time both reached 298 innings, Tendulkar had surged to 14,965 runs at 56.95, while Root stood at 13,943 at 51.07.

Milestones underline the contrast. Root reached his 41st Test century in his 297th innings -- the slowest among batters to reach that mark. Tendulkar, by contrast, brought up his 51st hundred in his 289th innings.

After turning 35, Tendulkar added another 4,139 runs in 91 innings at an average of 49.86, including 12 centuries.

For Root, the arithmetic is demanding but not implausible. To match Tendulkar’s final tally within the same number of innings -- 329 -- he needs 1,978 runs from his next 31 innings.

Unlike Tendulkar, who played 463 ODIs, Root has largely focused on one format. He has featured in just 218 white-ball internationals (186 ODIs and 32 T20Is). With age and fitness on his side, the Yorkshire-born batter may yet cruise past Sachin’s once-unfathomable mark of 15,921 Test runs.


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