The veteran Australian skipper and batsman, Ricky Ponting, has featured in over 168 matches in his test career. He is also the second-highest run-getter in the longest format of the game, just behind the likes of the great Sachin Tendulkar.
In a recent interview with the ICC, Ponting claimed one of the fab-4 players of modern cricket as the player who can overtake the likes of the great Sachin Tendulkar. It’s not Indian batter Virat Kohli, and likely so, as Kohli is the batter among Fab-4 with the least number of test runs.
It’s the English batter, Joe Root, who was named as the batter who could overtake Sachin for his runs tally in the longest format of the game. Joe Root recently completed 12,000 test runs against the West Indies at Edgbaston.
The Englishman has emerged as unconditionally one of the finest batters of modern-day test cricket, as he has been named among the Fab-4 alongside New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, Australia’s Steven Smith, and India’s veteran Virat Kohli.
Root is behind the likes of great Kumara Sangakara, who has 12400 runs in the format, while Root is also likely to get past Alastair Cook, his former skipper, who also has 12472 runs in the format. Joe Root is very likely to get past both of them this summer to be placed in the No. 5 spot, as he is currently placed seventh among all-time run-getters in the format.
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Ponting rightly indicated that Joe Root, who is now 33 years old, will most likely feature for the next 4-5 years in his career. Ricky Ponting stated that Root, who now has 12000 test runs, is somewhat 3000 runs behind the great, which we would precisely state as 3894 runs.
Root is likely to keep up his great form for the upcoming years; if he keeps up with playing 14 games per year and likely plays the next 50 games of his career, then he is likely to score these runs at a rate of 1000 runs annually.
Ponting added while praising the Englishman
“If his hunger’s still there, then there’s every chance that he could do it. He is someone that, in the last couple of years, has gotten better and better.”
