Joe Root is on the brink of achieving a historic milestone in Test cricket. The England batter is just 120 runs away from surpassing Australian great Ricky Ponting’s tally of 13,378 Test runs. If Root manages to reach this mark, he will move into second place on the all-time list, with only Sachin Tendulkar’s 15,921 runs ahead of him. While Root’s ultimate goal is to break Tendulkar’s record, he will likely need a few more years of consistent performances to get close to it.

Ben Stokes, England’s captain, recently praised Root, suggesting he is already better than Ponting. Should Root score the necessary runs in the first innings of the upcoming Test in Manchester, he will surpass Ponting’s tally in fewer innings 286 innings for Root compared to Ponting’s 287.

Stokes called Root an “absolute GOAT” and added that his achievements prove the value of “less is more” in cricket.

“Yeah, sometimes with those things, maybe less really is more?” he said.

“I don’t need to say anything more, he’s simply the absolute GOAT,” Stokes said, as reported by FoxSports.

Although Root initially struggled in the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy, he found his form at Lord’s, where he played a crucial role by scoring a match-winning century in the first innings. Root has been England’s most consistent Test player over the last five years, and his dominance is evident as he tops the World Test Championship (WTC) runs table. He is now just 204 runs away from becoming the first player to score 6,000 runs in the WTC.

However, Root faces a significant challenge in the upcoming Ashes series in Australia, where his record is less impressive. With an average of just 35 in Australia and no Test centuries to his name there, Root has a major task ahead if he is to cement his legacy as the greatest Test batsman of all time.