London: Former England captain Michael Vaughan remains in awe of Joe Root’s batting prowess and believes the experienced right-hander is capable of overtaking Sachin
Tendulkar and becoming Test cricket’s leading run-scorer.
Root moved up to eighth place on the list of leading run-scorers in Test cricket when he scored his 32nd Test century against the West Indies in Nottingham over the weekend and Vaughan thinks the 33-year-old can continue to reach even greater heights.
West Indies great Brian Lara is just 13 runs ahead of Root in seventh place, while Tendulkar’s record tally of 15,921 Test runs is now less than 4,000 runs away as the England veteran continues to his rise up the exclusive club.
Vaughan expects Root to surpass Alastair Cook’s total of 12,472 runs and become England’s most prolific scorer when the side plays against Pakistan and New Zealand later this year and thinks the former skipper can even better Tendulkar should he continue to perform at his best, an ICC report said.
“Joe Root will become England’s leading run-scorer in the next few months and is so special that he really could overtake Sachin Tendulkar eventually,” Vaughan wrote of the world’s No.2 ranked Test batter in The Telegraph.
“As the rock, Root is obviously key to that, and I love that he kept the reverse-scoop in the locker until he was past 100 (in the second Test against the West Indies) and England’s lead was massive,” he said.
“Against an attack like the West Indies in these conditions, you expect him to get a century. He missed out in the first innings but was so determined to put it right in the second. He was never
going to make the same mistakes,” Vaughan said.
Root isn’t the only England batter to have impressed Vaughan in recent times, with the exploits of young gun Harry Brook also catching the eye of the respected commentator and Ashes-winning skipper.
Brook scored his fifth Test century when amassing 109 in the second innings against the West Indies at Trent Bridge and Vaughan was suitably captivated.
“Then there’s Harry Brook, who is going to provide spectators so many ‘I was there’ moments in the next few years. He will play innings and shots that just make you go ‘wow’. I have seen players with time, but I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone with that much time to play aggressive shots looking very easy,” Vaughan said.
“Stillness, trigger, hands high, cocked wrist. There is a bit of Kevin Pietersen there, that ability to play jaw-dropping innings,” he added.
