Joe Root has opened up on climbing up the run charts in Test cricket, surpassing the likes of Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting in the ongoing fourth Test in Manchester to become the second-highest run-getter (13,409) of all time in the longest format of the game.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Root said that the immensity of his achievement is yet to fully sink in.
“When you look at the names there on that list, they are all people that, as a kid growing up, that’s who I would try to be in the garden, on the street, on the driveway, at my local club,” Root said.
“One day I’d try to be Ricky Ponting, the next I’d try to be Kumar Sangakkara or Brian Lara. I’d pretend that I was in different parts of the world, scoring Test-match hundreds. Even just to be mentioned in the same sentence as these guys is a bit of a pinch-yourself moment. It is pretty cool, yeah,” he added.
The 34-year-old Root also shared a special moment with former Australia captain Ricky Ponting ahead of the fourth day’s play in Manchester.
Adding to the reactions that have followed since he surpassed Ponting during his dashing knock, Root joked, “I can’t avoid it. They [the numbers] are everywhere, aren’t they? But you try to put it out of your mind. It is easy to get caught up in this stuff. You’re not doing your job if you’re concentrating on yourself. It’s something that I’ll look back on at the end of my career rather than right now.”
“It was a really cool day, something I’ll try to take in properly and appreciate what I’ve achieved, but there’s so much important cricket still to be playing within this series, within this game, and obviously in the next little while, so that’s the main focus right now,” he added.
Notably, Root now remains only behind India legend Sachin Tendulkar (15,291) in the all-time run charts. But the England batter has stated that he won’t be putting it under his lens.
“It’s not something that I will focus on. Those sorts of things should look after themselves. The focus has to be about winning games,” he told the BBC.
Reliving his experience of playing against Tendulkar during England’s tour of India back in 2012, Root said, “He made his Test debut before I was born. To be playing on the same ground as him and to get the chance to play against him was incredibly cool.
“[He was] someone you grew up watching, admiring, trying to learn from. To get to play in a series where he was still playing was really quite a memorable experience that I’ll never forget,” he added.
Root’s century, alongside Stokes’s ton, helped England take firm control of the match with a 311-run lead as the hosts piled on 669 in their first innings, in response to India’s 358.
