‘Records are meant to be broken’, Sunil Gavaskar in a congratulating message to Alan Border after the Australian broke the record of most test runs held by Sunil Gavaskar. In 1996, Sunil Gavaskar wrote in an article that he expects Sachin Tendulkar to score 15,000 test runs and 40 test centuries. Tendulkar bettered Gavaskar’s expectations by scoring 15,921 runs and 51 test hundreds. But not every expectation or prediction comes true.
As soon as Joe Root reached the 10,000 runs milestone in tests the debate started, ‘can he break Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most test runs?’ It’s not the first time this question has been asked. Since the time Tendulkar retired in November 2013, every time a batsman crosses the milestone of 10,000 or 11,000 runs the question arises.
Root is just 31 years old, he has time and also enough tests in future to break the record. At the moment, Root’s test average is 49.57. If he can just maintain this average for the next approx 103 innings (i.e. almost 52 tests and remember England plays more tests than any other country) in the next 5-6 years, he can easily surpass Tendulkar. Maintaining the form is vital and so is the fitness. Currently, Root is in the form of his life and if he can make most of it, then a slump later in his career (if there is any) won’t stop him from becoming the top run-getter in Tests.
Like Root, when his former teammate Alastair Cook reached the 10,000 mark at exactly the same age, many cricket pundits predicted that Cook can break Tendulkar’s record. Cook had the age with him and also the form. But the form didn’t last too long and he retired with more than 3000 runs short of Tendulkar’s record.
He wasn’t the only candidate. Ponting, Kallis, and Sangakkara all appeared menacingly close to breaking Tendulkar’s record at one point in time of their career but they couldn’t. Believe it or not, every time there is a comparison or debate of a player breaking Tendulkar’s record, that particular player either loses his form or retires from the international arena. Sangakkara and Kallis, all of a sudden, decided to call it quits even when they were scoring runs consistently, while Ponting and Cook lost their form and then decided to hang up their boots.
A lot of people on social media call it ‘Tendulkar’s curse’. If you still don’t believe it, check out Kohli’s form and when was the last time he scored an international hundred. Root can break the record but…
