Selfless Joe Root is England’s greatest and ‘incredible attribute’ ensures there’s more to come

Joe Root breaking Sir Alastair Cook’s record for most Test runs for England had a touch of inevitability about it.

Root sent a straight drive past Aamer Jamal in the first Test of the three-match tour of Pakistan in Multan to eclipse Cook’s total of 12,472 runs and move into fifth on the all-time list.

Despite jubilation back in England, the milestone itself was not celebrated in Multan, the local fans did not notice. There was an understated touch of the gloves with Ben Duckett, and a pat on the shoulder before the innings resumed. He went on to bring up his century as England racked up the runs, after Pakistan had scored 556 in the first innings.

Throughout his career, Root has scored his runs in almost exactly the same way, and aside from the odd scoop shot, has remained remarkably consistent with textbook technique.

Root loves batting, that is the crux and formation of his entire career. When training sessions the day before a match are optional, the Yorkshireman will be out there in the nets having a long bat.

There are few players in modern cricket who can claim to have anywhere near the same consistency that the 33-year-old has demonstrated throughout his career.

From 2015 to 2024, only in one year has Root’s average dipped below 40, and before the Multan Test it stood at an impressive 51.10.

Making his debut for England in Nagpur in 2012, Root showed patience and determination far beyond his years, scoring 73 from 229 balls.

Root is now fifth on the list of all-time Test run-scorers, with Sachin Tendulkar at the top having amassed 15,921 runs during his career, and Ricky Ponting second with 13,378 runs. The ones below Tendulkar are within touching distance, but he might need another three or four years to come close to matching the Indian great.

He has pushed his body to the limit for England. During the tour of Pakistan in 2022, Root scored 73 runs from 68 balls at Rawalpindi and looked in fine touch, only for teammate James Anderson to later reveal he had been “off the field every half an hour puking up”.

In record-breaking heat in Sydney, Root was admitted to hospital with severe dehydration but reappeared in the morning session to take his total from 42 to 58, putting his health on the line for the sake of England and to save a Test match.

Ben Stokes, who is absent from the first Test with injury, said of his teammate in a video released on X by the England and Wales Cricket Board: “The selflessness that he has is an incredible attribute for him. He always puts the team first, and the fact that he’s got so many runs is just a bonus for us.

“He’s an incredible player. It’s going to take a long, long time for someone to come in and break that record. Just a great bloke. And an unbelievable feat to score that many runs.

“But the non-selfishness that he possesses is one thing I think sets him above or sets him apart from anybody else who is going to play for England for a long time.”

During the darkest days of his captaincy, Root still took it upon himself to score the bulk of runs for his side. Hitting 109 and 153 during a tour of the West Indies that would be the final tour of his captaincy.

Since giving up the role, Root has flourished under Stokes, thriving after being relieved of that added pressure to lead.

In August, Root overtook another one of Cook’s achievements, levelling and then overtaking his record of 33 Test centuries with back-to-back hundreds against Sri Lanka at Lord’s. Cook said then on the BBC’s Test Match Special: “He is quite simply England’s greatest, and it’s absolutely right that he should have this record, on his own. He’s just the final one to tick off...”

Root is arguably England’s greatest-ever batter, there are few who can equal his ability to play across the globe in different conditions, and while Cook called time on his career at the same age as his former teammate’s current age, the Yorkshireman shows no signs of coming towards the end.

There are still more milestones and records to break, and crucially he has still yet to score a century in Australia, but as long as Root continues to maintain the same hunger and desire for batting and Test cricket, there is no reason he cannot climb further up the list of all-time run-scorers.