This Root is holding the tree of English Cricket firm

When, the fab four of the last generation of World Cricket, namely, Sachin, Ponting, Kallis and Dravid walked into the sunset of their careers, the two questions on every cricket fan's lips were, 

1. "Will there be anyone worthy enough to carry the great legacy of this fab 4? 
2. Will the test record of Sachin,  arguably the best ever Batsman, ever be bettered?"

Well, it didn't take long for the world to find out the answer to the first question. It became clear very soon that there was a new gen fab 4 ready to take over the legacy from the earlier one. The era post 2015, was taken over by Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli and Joe Root. But it was the answer to the second question that was so tough to figure out. As the four modern-day batting greats began engaging in healthy competition with each other to prove their supremacy, it helped them to become better players and runs started to flow from their willows. As they began to outshine each other in phases, it became extremely tough to figure out who would turn out to be the "last man standing" and the ultimate successor to Sachin's legacy in terms of records and statistics. Now, nearly a decade past that golden journey of the four, the fog of confusion seems to have cleared up finally and we think we know who is going to end up as the most prolific among the four. 

Joe Root of England is the highest run scorer and century maker among the fab 4 of contemporary Cricket. At the completion of his first innings knock against Sri Lanka at Lords, he is just 3647 runs shy of Sachin's record of highest test runs that looked unsurpassable barely 5 years back. Root's overall batting average in tests is 50.71. It's impressive. But what makes him a cut above the rest is his phenomenal record from the last 5 years.

Root's batting average since 2020 is 54+ (highest in terms of number of runs and best average for a batsman playing 50+ innings). He has been scoring close to 5000 runs every 5 years in the last decade (4706 from 2016-20 including the period of lockdown and 4451* and counting from 2021-).

Root was at the bottom of the hierarchy of Fab 4 in terms of stats (with just 17 centuries) at the start of 2021.
Today the order has turned upside down with Root at the top with 33 tons. 

Root is 33 years old. Considering the fitness level and the average active life span of a contemporary international cricketer and considering the fact that he might have turned into a one-format player (he is no longer part of England's T20 scheme of things and he has been excluded from the ODI Squad for the big Australian ODI series before the CT), he can easily stretch his test career. We have seen how well Broad and Anderson stretched their awesome test career with impressive contributions by keeping themselves fit, and in shape, maintaining focus and staying fresh and hungry by concentrating on Test Cricket alone. Remember, they were in the business of pace bowling which is so much physically demanding and injury-inflicting compared to batting. With a similar approach, Root, the batter, can go on for at least five more years at his peak. And if he does that, there may not be many records in Test batting that wouldn't be broken/set by him. It very much includes Sachin's record for the highest Test runs.

If Root sets the test batting record, which he must purely as per logical projection of his stats from the last few years, it may stay immortal till eternity just like Muralitharan's magical mark of 800 in bowling.

Considering the status of test cricket today, the lack of interest in the fans, absence of enthusiasm among the budding Cricketers for the longer format of the game, the technical flaws inherent in young players due to over-exposure to T20 cricket and the indifference in administrators towards reviving test cricket, there may not be too much of life left in test cricket to last long in the future and it would almost rule out the probability of most of the test records that require a long dedicated career, being ever surpassed. And if that happens, Joe Root may be an apt and fitting destination as a final resting place for the statistical benchmark and legacy of batsmanship from the purest form of Cricket. Because all is said and done and with all the deserving criticism around England for its colonial hangover, the fact remains that England was the birthplace of Test Cricket and to some extent, it still holds a certain reverence and respect for test cricket. The nation has produced scores of Cricketing greats who have enriched the game with their contribution. One such legend was Geoffrey Boycott who was the last English batter to own the World Record as the highest run scorer in Test Cricket. Today, as Joe Root is inching towards breaking Sachin's present record, an element of irony and a feeling of deja vu can't be missed there. Because, nearly 40 years ago, just as India broke England's hegemony in global administration by snatching the right to hold the ODI WC first time outside England, around that time it was an Indian legend, Sunil Gavaskar, who broke the hegemony of English test cricket on the field in a symbolic manner by snatching the world record for highest test runs from the English legend, Geoffrey Boycott. It will be a little ironic if and when Joe Root, an Englishman, reclaims that record from an Indian great.

By- Ambika Prasad Mahapatra