Former India batter turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Joe Root has a great chance of surpassing Sachin Tendulkar’s world record tally of most runs in Test cricket as well. Manjrekar added that there are hardly any weaknesses in Root’s batting, claiming that he will get a chance to face some weak opponents as well.

However, Joe Root smashed his 38th Test ton against India in Manchester on Friday, July 25. With this, he is now joint-fourth on the list of batters with the most Test hundreds as well. During his 150-run knock, he also surpassed Ricky Ponting (13,378) and moved to second place on the list of batters with the most Test runs. He has 13,409 runs to his name, with only batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar (15,921) above him.

During a discussion on ESPNcricinfo, Manjrekar said: “I don’t see any red flags with Joe Root. He gets out to Bumrah outside off, but there aren’t many like Bumrah around. Fitness wise, he’s built just right. He doesn’t have a weight issue. Virat Kohli had a big weakness to deal with and that actually stunted his growth in the final few years.”

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“England play a lot of Test cricket and I see him having a good chance of getting there. Eventually when he gets very close, I don’t know what he will do. We have examples of people, out of respect, not getting there. But, he’s got a serious chance of doing it only because he’s a collector of runs,” Manjrekar went on to add. “All he needs to make his job easier are some easy tours and there are some easy teams and bowling attacks in today’s world. Tendulkar perhaps didn’t have as many,” he again shared.

However, England resumed Day 3 of the Manchester Test at 225-2, with Root unbeaten on 11 as well. He later reached 150 before Ravindra Jadeja dismissed him.

“India were lucky to have him, when they got him after 150, because this guy has got big double hundreds as well. A few yardsticks for greatness – one is when they see a bowling attack like this and pitch conditions like these, it’s almost like they get a hundred at will. That was something that you saw,” Sanjay Manjrekar concluded.