Records are meant to be broken. It's the most cliched of sports cliches. Bjorn Bjorg said it of Rafa Nadal after he surged past him for most French Open wins. Brian Lara told Wiaan Mulder as much after he decided to declare 33 runs short of his 400 earlier this month. Sachin Tendulkar will probably say the same when Joe Root goes past his record for most Test runs.
The Englishmanâs knock of 150 in the fourth Test against India saw him jump up to second on the all-time runs list, with only 2512 runs separating him from Tendulkar on 15, 921.
Root was always that object in the mirror that was closer than he appeared. Since 2021, he has an average hovering near 57 and has scored an astounding 21 centuries. Skipping past Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting on the leaderboard had always felt inevitable, but doing so has put the Tendulkar record firmly in focus.
Not all records are created equal and Tendulkarâs is the most absolute of them all. You donât need context or a calculator to grasp its significance. The 15,921 fostered a degree of entitlement among Indian cricket fans. It is to them what the MCC is to England supporters. 1.5 billion Indians will grow progressively more queasy with each of the 2,512 runs Root systematically ticks down. Perhaps what makes it so scary is that if/once he goes top of the list, it will be his forever. Given how few Tests teams outside of the Big Three play, itâs unlikely anyone will come even remotely close to him. Kane Williamson is the closest active player to Root on the all-time list, and he still trails him by nearly 4,000 runs. Behind him is Ben Stokes, who is at a dash above 7,000.
Despite his consecration, Tendulkar carried his legend lightly. âWhen a billion people call you God, itâs hard not to believe it,â Muttiah Muralidharan once said of him. That being said, there were dashes of hedonism to his humility. Multan, 2004 has now entered chat.
In the first Test of Indiaâs tour of Pakistan in 2004, stand-in captain Rahul Dravid declared the innings with Tendulkar batting on 194. It was a decision that sparked hysteria in Indian media, in part due to the usually reticent Tendulkar expressing his disappointment in a news conference.
âEven the greatest have their goals and dreams and milestones, and a double century against Pakistan in Pakistan would have been a memory to treasure,â the then-Indian coach John Wright would write later in his autobiography.
Tendulkar was sometimes labelled with the selfish tag during his career, and the manner in which he prolonged his career to hit the 100 100s mark only added fuel to that argument. There was almost exactly a year between his 99th and 100th tons, and in the intervening 20 matches during that time he averaged 34.7 across formats. Stuart Broad has spoken of the haze that hung around Tendulkar due to the impending record during Indiaâs whitewash in England in the summer of 2011. When he eventually hit the milestone in Mirpur in the 2012 Asia Cup, the overriding sentiment was one of relief.
Calling Tendulkar selfish after he has dedicated 24 years of his life to Indian cricket does feel a bit troll-y. Batting, especially in Tests, is afterall an individualistic expression.
In the same way that power shouldnât be given to those who crave it, perhaps records should be held by those who donât proactively pursue them. In that context, Root feels like the apt cricketer to surpass Tendulkar.
"Those sort of things should look after themselves," Root told BBC Test Match Special after moving into second on the all-time list.
"The focus has to be about winning games, setting them up if we're earlier on in the Test match and if we need to chase something down, figuring out how to play that situation well.
"It might sound a little bit boring and methodical, but ultimately that's what I need to do to help England win and that's why we play the game."
Itâs the sort of answer that might sound glib coming from any other player. But because itâs Root, it feels earnest. He turned down Stokesâ offer for a hug when he overtook Ponting at Old Trafford, looking almost embarrassed.
On his podcast âFor the Love of Cricketâ, Jos Buttler said what makes him so good is that he is a âproper team man.â He spoke of how Root once told him âI just donât know what Iâll do once I canât score runs for England, I just love scoring runs for the team.â
Itâll be some time before he faces that quandary. At 34, Root still has a couple of years at the top level ahead of him. He has averaged 1218 runs/year since 2021 and if he keeps going at that rate, he will break Tendulkarâs record in the summer of 2027.
Australia tour England for The Ashes that summer and by some estimates, he is set to break it in the fifth Test of the series at The Oval.
All I wish for is that when he is a handful of runs away, Pat Cummins approaches him with his hand outstretched and asks if he wants to declare the innings. When Root turns down the offer, I hope Travis Head bowls 40mph nude nuts to help him get over the line. Is that too much to ask for?
Consumption Corner:
Reading:
Listening: This interview with the former editor of The New Yorker on the Trump-Epstein saga. Sheâs got a truly mad story about the time Epstein turned up un-announced at her office.
Watching: Iâve been watching a lot of Tanmay Reacts over the past week, and have literally been crying with laughter. With all that is going on in the world, we need more content like this.