Can Root Overtake Tendulkar?

From January 1, 2021 to September 9, 2024 -- during which Joe Root hit 17 centuries, Kane Williamson has hit, Steve Smith has made six tons but Virat Kohli has managed just two centuries.

Joe Root is in the form of his life!

Root starred with a century in each innings against Sri Lanka in the Lord's Test to firmly etch his name among the greatest Test batters from England. He has now taken his tally to 34 centuries in Test cricket, surpassing former team-mate Alastair Cook for the most centuries by an England batter in Tests.

Overall, he is joint sixth on the all-time list of most centuries in Tests with only Sachin Tendulkar (51 centuries), Jacques Kallis (45), Ricky Ponting (41), Kumar Sangakkara (38) and Rahul Dravid (36) ahead of him.

Among the active batters in Test cricket, Root has the most centuries followed by Australia's Steve Smith and New Zealand's Kane Williamson on 32.

The other member of the Fab 4, Virat Kohi, has 29 centuries.

Root looks unstoppable at the moment. He has been in peak form in the last four years as he keeps rattling up the centuries regularly.

The Fab 4 scenario has completely changed from four years down the line. Nearly four years ago, Root was way behind the other three batters in terms of Test centuries.

On January 1, 2021, Root was way behind with 17 centuries with Kohli top at 27 tons, followed by Smith with 26 and Williamson on 23.

Interestingly, Root, who had 17 centuries in nearly eight years of his career, has hit the same number of hundreds in the last three-and-a-half years.

In the same period from January 1, 2021 to September 9, 2024 -- during which Root hit 17 centuries, Williamson also maintained his high standards with nine hundreds.

While Smith scored six tons during the same period, Kohli has managed just two centuries in the last 44 months.

Joe Root hit a purple patch in 2021 as he hit six hundreds in the year, including three away from home -- 2 in Sri Lanka and one in India.

He followed it up with five centuries in 2022 to make it 11 centuries in the space of 18 months.

Even though he managed just two centuries in 2023 he has already four centuries in 2024 so far to take his tally to 34 hundreds to top the list for most centuries by an active player in Tests.

Root also added another world record to his name.

He struck 37 boundaries in the three Test series against Sri Lanka to finish as the highest run-getter with 375 runs in three matches, including two centuries and a fifty.

Root achieved a milestone with 500 fours in the World Test Championship. The England batting mainstay is also the leading run-getter in the World Test Championship (2019-2024) with 4,973 runs in 58 matches at an average of 51, with 16 centuries and 20 fifties.

Australia's Marnus Labuschagne is the second on the fours list in WTC with 446 boundaries, he is also second in the run-getters list with 3,904 runs from 45 matches.

Among the Indians, Rohit Sharma is the top run-getter with 2,552 runs in 32 games; he has hit 301 fours.

The last two years have been quite good for Kane Williamson. He has hit seven centuries since January 2023, including three centuries in four innings against South Africa in February.

Overall, from January 2021, Williamson has been on a dream run with the bat with nine hundreds in total, four of which have been double centuries.

Australia's Steve Smith hasn't been able to maintain his usual high standards in the last three-and-a-half years.

He managed just one hundred in 2021 and followed it up with two centuries in 2022 before getting three the next year. But in 2024, he hasn't scored a single hundred in five Tests played so far.

Virat Kohli's century drought in the last few years in Test cricket has been alarming.

Since January 2021, Kohli has managed just two centuries in the last three and half years. Infact, his century against Australia in the Ahmedabad Test last year, was his first after a long gap of nearly three years before he scored another hundred in the West Indies later in the year.