Former English Test captain Joe Root has scored 10 centuries in the last 18 months and, as a result, has completed 10,000 runs as well, besides taking the number one position in the ICC Test rankings for batters.
Impressed by Root’s prolific run at the highest level, former Indian opening batter Aakash Chopra has labelled him as the world’s best Test batter and said that the Englishman has left the rest of the members of the ‘Fab Four’ far behind in Test cricket.
“Joe Root has reached mount 10,000 and he has been absolutely phenomenal. When Virat Kohli was on 27 Test centuries, he was on 17. He has reached 27 from 17, has crossed the 10,000-run mark,” the 44-year-old said in a YouTube video.
“The rest of the Fab Four are stuck where they were there earlier, whether it is Steve Smith or Kane Williamson, no one has added even one century since then and he has hit ten,” he added.
“At this moment, you have to admit that Joe Root is the best Test batter in the world, there is nobody who is coming close. Yes, there are other fabulous players in the Fab Four but if you see the performance of the last one-and-a-half to two years, he is way above everybody else.”
Chopra said what makes Root all the more special is that he has scored runs almost everywhere in the world.
“Root is unbreakable and the spirits of the ones in front of him are down. He is brilliant, outstanding. He scores so many runs in England, where batting is not easy, first innings, second innings, first Test, second Test, India, Sri Lanka – he scores runs everywhere.”
