Root is currently 33 years old and has scored a whopping 12,716 runs in 148 Tests at an average of 51.27. He is the highest run scorer among his contemporaries by some distance, with Virat Kohli being the nearest active cricketer in the list with 9017 runs. Root is, hence, now widely touted as capable of surpassing Sachin Tendulkar as the highest run scorer of all time in Test cricket.

When asked about whether Root can really do it, Cook, who himself was touted to reach that record in the latter stages of his career, said that he hopes to see the 33-year-old do it. Cook said that Root’s record would be hard to beat for an English batter for sure. “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 said in a round table interview hosted by the ICC.

Tendulkar scored 15,921 runs at an average of 53.78 in 200 Test matches between 1989 and 2013. He is the only player to have scored more than 50 centuries in the format, retiring with 51 tons and 68 half-centuries.

‘Watched the moment and then rang him’

Cook retired in 2018 with 12,472 runs to his name, which stayed the English record until Root crossed it earlier this month. Root had started his career under Cook’s captaincy and the latter said that he had first thought of dropping a text after the record was broken.

“I watched the moment, then I rang him after the end of the play. 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,” said Cook