Joe Root is considered among the ‘Fab 4’ of modern-day cricket with Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli and Steve Smith.

Joe Root overtook Alastair Cook’s tally of 12472 runs in just 147 Tests as compared to Cook who took 161 Test matches making it even more special.

Having made his debut in 2012 against India in Nagpur, the young Joe Root scored 73 in his very first innings against a quality bowling attack of India on a rank turner in Nagpur. England went on to win the historic series and Root never looked back since then.

The 33-year-old has made a name for himself as probably the best English player against spin.

Only Rahul Dravid (13288), Jacques Kallis (13289), Ricky Ponting (13378), and Sachin Tendulkar (15921) are above Root for most Test runs. Root has a good 2-3 years ahead of him and if he can keep his fitness level up, he can threaten all the above records may even threaten Sachin’s record.

In modern cricket, only Joe Root and Virat Kohli come close to being a threat to Sachin Tendulkar’s record

There was constant criticism of Root not able to convert his good starts into big hundreds, but he still accumulated runs.

Joe Root did have a tough 2018-19 season and during this time he probably felt left behind by the rest of the Fab 4 members.

Before the pandemic, Kane Williamson, Joe Root, and Virat Kohli seemed to be statistically better. His second peak started in 2021 right after the pandemic. Carrying a mediocre batting unit like England whose second-highest scorer was extras, Root became just the third batter to score over 1700 Test runs in a calendar year.

He could break several records in the near future.

If he can play till 36–37, there’s a good chance of him ending his career as the highest run-scorer in the history of Test cricket. And that record could be one of the toughest to be broken.

Batting great of New Zealand, late Martin Crowe named the term ‘Fab 4’ for the leading young talents back then who were to dominate the world cricket in the years to come. It had the likes of Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Joe Root.

From then, Joe Root has been arguably one of the best test batter in the world. England had a good batting unit till 2014.  But it was after the retirement of greats like Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Joe Root became England’s main batter in the side along with Alaister Cook. But after Cook’s retirement, the burden of the English batting solely rested on Joe Root.

Sound Technique

Joe Root since his debut was blessed with a sound batting technique. This helped him a technique of playing the ball late, which helped in judging the ball well.

Against spinners, he’s arguably the best with his sweep shot.

One of the biggest achievements of Joe Root like Alastair Cook has been his hunger for runs and the ability to play both pace and spin with equal ease in any condition.

Supersports view

The Team congratulated Joe Root for his 35^th Test Century.

Joe Root will go down in history as one of the most prolific batsmen of all time and when he decides to hang up his boots, he would have broken most batting records.

Joe Root’s consistency

• 6 hundreds in 2021
• 5 hundreds in 2022
• 2 hundreds in 2023
• 5 hundreds in 2024

One criticism that will always remain in Joe Root’s career is that his performance in Australia has not been as good as in other countries.

We at Supersports believe that out of the ‘Fab4’, Joe Root will be considered the best player of spin in subcontinental conditions.

One aspect of his career that always takes a backseat is his ability to bowl quality off-spin. When England travels to India or to subcontinental conditions, even with 2-3 specialist spinners in the squad, Joe is always England’s go-to spinner.

Wishing Joe, the very best in his career ahead.