Can Joe Root Eclipse Sachin Tendulkar? Alastair Cook Ponders On Possibility

After watching his friend go past him to become England’s most decorated batter, the 39-year-old struggled to sum up his feelings in words and ended up ringing Root to congratulate him for his massive feat.

“I watched the moment, then I rang him after the end of the play,” Cook said during a round-table interview hosted by the ICC.

“I couldn’t think of the right words to write in a text message. So I thought I’d just ring him, see what he was up to, and make sure he had a beer in his hand, which I think he did,” he added.

The 33-year-old’s current run tally now stands at a whopping 12,716, just 3,206 runs shy of going past India’s ‘God of Cricket’ to become the most decorated batter in Test history. With each passing Test, the world of cricket has started to fathom the responsibility of watching a record tumble that was once considered to be untouchable.

Before he sets his sights on toppling Sachin’s record, Root still has six players to overtake in the process before changing the course of history. Cook remains hopeful about Root overtaking the Master Blaster’s record in the amount of time that has left in his career.

“I think Joe Root could set a mark, certainly on an English side, that’ll be very hard to beat. But you just never know. I hope he can get very close, if not be the first person who scores 16,000 Test runs. It’d be a great achievement,” Cook added.

Root will continue his hunt to get closer to that elusive feat during the third Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi, beginning on Thursday.