Australian cricket great Ricky Ponting picked the English star to break Sachin Tendulkar's all-time record for most Test runs on Thursday. The Indian legend still holds the record after 11 years of his international retirement but faces a potential threat in the coming years.
Ponting predicted that the current no.1 Test batter Joe Root holds a realistic chance to break Sachin's famous record in the coming years. Sachin leads the Test scoring chart with 15,921 runs and is well ahead of Root who reached the 12,000-run mark last month.
But the former Australian captain, who is second in the list after Sachin with 13378 runs believes that Root has the potential to surpass both himself and Sachin. Root is only 33 years old and has shown a great hunger for runs in red-ball cricket in the last couple of years.
"He could potentially do that," Ricky Ponting said to ICC Review. "He is 33 years of age and 3000 runs behind. It depends how many Test matches they play, but if they're playing 10 to 14 Test matches a year and if you're scoring 800 to 1000 runs a year, then that sort of says he's only three or four years off getting there. So that'll take him to 37 (years of age). If his hunger's still there, then there's every chance that he could do it."
However, Root is way behind Sachin's record of 51 Test centuries and needs a miracle to break that record even if reaches the runs tally. Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Root have registered 32 Test centuries each but Ponting pointed out Root's recent record of converting 50s into 100s.
"He is someone that in the last couple of years has got better and better," Ponting added. "There's always talk around batters reaching their prime in their early 30s and he's certainly done that. It's been his conversion rates being the big thing. Four or five years ago, he was making a lot of 50s and struggling to go on and make hundreds and he's gone the other way recently. Almost every time he gets to 50 now, he goes on and makes a big hundred. So that's been the real turnaround for him."
