Former captain Michael Vaughan has lauded Joe Root for being a special batter and has predicted that he could overtake Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most runs by a batter in the history of men’s Test cricket. On Sunday, Root smashed 122 off 178 balls, his 32nd Test hundred, during England’s 241-run win over the West Indies at Nottingham to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Root, who now has 11,940 Test runs, has also become the eighth-highest run-getter in Test cricket, going past the likes of Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene (11,814) and the West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul (11,867).
“Joe Root will become England’s leading run-scorer in the next few months and is so special that he really could overtake Sachin Tendulkar eventually. As the rock, Root is obviously key to that, and I love that he kept the reverse-scoop in the locker until he was past 100 and England’s lead was massive.
“Against an attack like the West Indies in these conditions, you expect him to get a century. He missed out in the first innings but was so determined to put it right in the second. He was never going to make the same mistakes,” wrote Vaughan in his column for The Telegraph.
He also praised right-handed batter Harry Brook for hitting his first Test century on home soil, but advised him to do something about his issues related to facing short ball. “Then there’s Harry Brook, who is going to provide spectators so many ‘I was there’ moments in the next few years. He will play innings and shots that just make you go “wow”. I have seen players with time, but I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone with that much time to play aggressive shots looking very easy. Stillness, trigger, hands high, cocked wrist.
“There is a bit of Kevin Pietersen there, that ability to play jaw-dropping innings. Darren Lehmann has coached some serious players and he tweeted on Sunday that he is in the top five players he has thrown balls to, alongside Steve Smith, Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers and Kumar Sangakkara. That is special company to keep.
“The short ball is his challenge, but I genuinely don’t think he’s got a weakness against it. He is just facing a fair bit of it, because it’s the obvious way to bowl to someone who is so aggressive. I don’t think it’s like a Kraigg Brathwaite, who has a problem with the short stuff, flicking in the air from armpit height.
“Brook has been out to it a few times in ungainly fashion, but I think that is just his ultra-aggression. I watch him net every morning at the Test match and he is getting peppered by the short ball, so he’s clearly thinking about it. In Australia, he might have to learn to duck and sway at times, because the boundaries are bigger and the pitches quicker,” he concluded.
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