Closing In On Sachin Tendulkar's Record, Joe Root Recalls Early Impression Of India Legend

Joe Root recalled his first memory of watching a Test match at Headingley.© AFP

England captain Joe Root is not far off Sachin Tendulkar's record for the most runs in Test cricket, having recently surpassed the legendary batter as the second fastest to 23,000 international runs. Root (14,278), who recently took charge of the England Test team after Ben Stokes' retirement, is just 1,643 runs shy of Tendulkar's all-time tally of 15,921 Test runs. Speaking to The Telegraph, Root recalled his first memory of watching a Test match at Headingley, which came a decade before he made his debut for England against India.

Root reminisced about how Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly made a mockery of the English bowlers, scoring a century each as India piled up more than 600 runs and wrapped up the game by an innings.

"India won the toss and batted first, and I watched one wicket all day. It was Rahul Dravid (148) and Sourav Ganguly (128) who got a boatload of runs, and that's one where Sachin got, I don't know how much," recalled Root.

Root further revealed that he attended the game with his local cricket club, describing it as a wonderful experience.

"It was a tough toil for the England bowlers, but that was my first experience of coming here with a local cricket club. It was with Rotherham Town, actually. And they took the Under 11s out to watch the game, and it was a great experience," he added.

Root is only the eighth batter in international cricket to cross the 23,000-run mark across formats, and the first from his country.

While Virat Kohli is the fastest to 23,000 runs, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka, Ricky Ponting of Australia, Jacques Kallis of South Africa, and Rahul Dravid of India are among the other batters to have crossed the mark.

Root is also the third-most capped player in Test cricket, behind Sachin Tendulkar (200) and James Anderson (188).

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