Born in December 1990, more than a year after Sachin Tendulkar made his iconic Test debut in Karachi, England’s Joe Root grew up doing what most cricket-loving kids of his generation did -- trying to copy the Little Master.
More than three decades on, Root now finds himself second only to Tendulkar in the list of all-time Test run-getters as he reflected on the Indian maestro's legacy his own journey as a youngster inspired by the Indian icon.
"He's one of the greats the game has seen, hasn't he? I mean, all the things that he managed to achieve with the pressures that he had to shoulder and burden were incredible,” Root said during a conversation with Harsha Bhogle on Sony Liv.
The Yorkshireman surpassed Ricky Ponting’s tally of 13,378 runs on Friday, day three of the fourth Test against India, and now sits at 13,409 runs from 157 Tests -- behind only Tendulkar’s towering 15,921.
Root made his Test debut in the 2012 Nagpur Test, a series that marked the twilight of Tendulkar’s career.
Recalling the surreal moment, Root said: "There's someone, again, that you watched play as a young kid and you wanted to copy and emulate and then to get the opportunity to play against him as well.
"I mean, he made his Test debut before I was born and then you find yourself playing in a Test match against him.”
"It was an incredible experience to go to India. The whole crowd cheers because Sachin's coming into bat. It was bizarre to witness but just shows the greatness of the man and the legend that he is.”
Asked about chasing Tendulkar’s record, Root told BBC Test Match Special: "It's not something that I will focus on. Those sort of things should look after themselves."
In the all time most Test run-scores' list, Root has since gone on to eclipse the likes of Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis too.
“Ricky's someone that I grew up admiring, watching, trying to emulate, copy in the garden and at my local club — trying to play the pull shot that he's obviously world famous for.
"So even just to be spoken about in the same sentence as those guys, the people that you grew up wanting to emulate and pretending to be is pretty cool," added Root.
Much of his success in recent years, Root credits to honest self-reflection during the pandemic and some crucial advice from former England skipper Nasser Hussain.
“I actually spoke to Nass quite a bit,” Root told Sky Sports.
"I said, 'can I get some footage?' and just look at modes of dismissal and if there were any trends and seeing the different ways I was getting out at different points in my innings.
"One thing I've done within that period is actually try and look at the game slightly differently.
"For that start of my career, a lot of it was based on my technique: where my hands are, where my head is, am I lined up, is my trigger right? "Whereas in this second phase of things, it's been more about managing risk and thinking how can I eliminate as many modes of dismissal as possible with the highest output?"
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