Make no mistake. Tendulkar still leads the charts with a mind-boggling 15921 runs from 200 Tests, but in the last couple of years, Root has stormed ahead of his contemporaries. Once the least talked-about batter among the Fab Four, Root has leapt ahead of Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, and Virat Kohli to be breathing down Tendulkar’s neck. With 13,543 runs, Root is just 2378 away from eclipsing the Master Blaster. Tendulkar, thus far, stayed away from talking much about Root’s record, but during an AMA session with Reddit, Sachin, its brand ambassador, replied to a question about Root being ‘second only’ to him.

Replying to the question ‘What was your first impression of Joe Root? Also, he has now crossed 13,000 Test runs and is second only to you, and he played his 1st match against you,’ Sachin said: “To have gone past 13000 runs is a remarkable achievement, and he’s still going strong. When I saw him for the first time in Nagpur in 2012 during his debut Test, I told my teammates that they were watching the future captain of England. What impressed me most was the way he was able to assess the wicket and how he rotated the strike. I knew at that very moment that he would be a big player.”

When Joe Root earned Sachin Tendulkar’s praise four years ago

Tendulkar had briefly touched upon the greatness of Root in the middle of the five-Test series. When India notched up a famous win at Lord’s during the 2021 Pataudi Trophy, with England enduring a batting collapse late on Day 5, Tendulkar felt only Root was capable of holding the innings together. Tendulkar sensed that the English team of three years ago lacked the class that guys like Alastair Cook, Michael Vaughan, Ian Bell, Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen had. Of course, things are a lot different now in 2025, but one thing that has stayed constant is Root.

Root enjoyed a terrific Test series against India recently, finishing the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy scoring 537 runs at an average of 67.12, including three centuries. Root’s next big assignment is the Ashes Down Under later this year. The former England captain has yet to score a Test hundred in Australia, but with him being in the form of his life, this trivia sure can change.