On Tuesday, Ben Stokes felt the briefest of tributes to Joe Root was the most eloquent. “Sometimes less is more,” he argued. “I don’t need to say anything else except he’s just the absolute GOAT.” Three days later, Stokes was at the other end as Root put himself second in the all-time standings for Test match runs to the man many an Indian would describe as the greatest of all time, Sachin Tendulkar.
Root leapfrogged three legends in one day with his score of 150 off 248 balls, leaving Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting behind him. He already had a status as England’s finest ever Test batter – certainly their best in the last half-century – and now only one person in the history of the game has made more runs in this format.
