Follow UsThe Joe Root of 2012-2020 was already a bonafide Test legend, but, since 2021, the right-hander has upped his game to such an outrageous level that he’s straight up become one of the greatest Test batters of all time, and arguably England’s best Test batter ever.
Till the end of 2020, Root had played 97 Tests and had averaged 47.99, smashing 17 hundreds. Since 2021, though, the 33-year-old has astonishingly scored more hundreds (18) in 47 fewer Tests, all the while averaging 58.32.
He’s now sixth in the list of Test hundreds (all time). He is the highest run-getter for England in history and only four batters have now scored more runs than him in Tests. He’s been smashing record after record and there seems to be no end to this juggernaut.
So, how did Root go from being a ‘great’ batter to one of the greatest of all time in such a short span of time?
The 33-year-old credited the transformation to the changes he made during the pandemic - both mental and technical.
"In Covid, I spent that period off really looking at my game, the areas where I felt there were little holes and weaknesses in it, and just really trying to have a really good understanding of my strengths and weaknesses," Root told Sky Sports Cricket.
"And then work with the strengths and try to tighten up the areas within my game that needed to just probably raise the level.
"Not all of that is technical, some of it was mental and maybe looking at the game slightly differently.
"Instead of always being about where's my head, where's my hands and my feet, are they lined up right? Am I playing the angles right, can I find a way of making him bowl in a different area?
"I suppose just that switch of mentality to, it doesn't really matter sometimes if you're in the wrong position as long as it's effective and you're finding ways of keeping the good ones out and applying pressure when the bowlers miss."
In the last four years, Root has played some epics but none arguably better than his marathon effort in Multan two days ago, where he posted his highest Test score (262).
There were times in the innings where the right-hander could barely stand - thanks to the heat - but he dug in, fought through and compiled a true epic.
Root said in the same interview that he wanted to ‘make it count’ since he knows things won’t always be hunky-dory.
"You just know what it's like, this game. There are periods where you're really struggling and it's so hard.
"Every little mistake, the nick carries, or there's a brilliant catch, there's that 50-50 call on an lbw, and all of a sudden it feels like five innings, and you've not scored a run, and you're not in good nick.
"And you get days like this, where I was dropped at mid-wicket in the first half an hour, and you've got to really make the most of it to get us in a position to win the game.
"It's that mentality, of I suppose Goochie (Graham Gooch), that you've never got enough. It's something he always used to say to us when he was the batting coach.
"And when you've got that position of strength, in these conditions you know things can happen quickly late on in the game. But you've got to really work hard to earn the right to do that and have that chance of winning."
The mad run Root has gone on has now given him a realistic chance to go past Sachin Tendulkar and become the highest run-getter in Test history.
But is the milestone on the back of the 33-year-old’s mind?
"I've no idea. It's some way off yet,” Root said, speaking of going past Sachin’s run tally.
As it stands, Root is 3,257 runs shy of Sachin’s tally.
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