England’s stand-in captain Joe Root breached the 14,000 Test runs mark on Saturday (June 20), becoming only the second cricketer in the world after Sachin Tendulkar to do so. Root needed only two runs before the second innings of the ongoing England-New Zealand Test at the Oval, where the hosts are facing an uphill battle, and achieved it with a single in the seventh over against pacer Matt Henry.
The Englishman was slightly slower than Tendulkar to get to the mark, achieving it in his 302nd innings (165th Test), compared to the latter doing it in his 279th innings (171st Test).
Tendulkar was alone in the 14,000 club for the last 16 years, since the Test against Australia in Bengaluru in 2010, and Root is now only 1,921 runs behind the master-blaster’s record tally of 15,921 runs from 200 Tests. He would be much closer by the time the match ends in London.
Root needs 1,922 more runs to break Tendulkar’s 15,921. At his current average of 50.72, that works out to 37.9 more innings — so roughly 38 more innings, or about 19 more Tests, assuming he averages about two innings per Test, with the odd not-out.
At the pace he’s been going — around 10-12 Tests per year — he could potentially get there in two years, putting him on track to break the record sometime mid-2028, health and selection permitting.
But Root is already 35, and naturally, his returns could diminish as he gets older. Below, we have marked estimated scenarios of when he can catch Tendulkar, depending on how he performs.
