"What a remarkable career," Ricky Ponting showers praised on Joe Root on inching closed to break Sachin Tendulkar's record

Former England captain, Joe Root brought up his 38th Test century in the ongoing fourth Test between India and England at the Old Trafford, Manchester. He not only touched a milestone, he moved closer to another milestone of breaking the record for most runs in Tests set by the legendary Indian batter, Sachin Tendulkar. 

He also challenged the record for most runs set by former Australia captain, Ricky Ponting. Ponting who was in the commentary panel was all praises for the veteran and he noted the right handed batter’s career as remarkable. It is worth noting that Ponting has scored 13,378 runs in Tests and is only second to Tendulkar in the list of top run getters in the longest format of the game. 

“Batting conditions probably won’t get any better than they are right now and they’ve got two class players at the crease (in Pope and Root). England will have gone to bed last night thinking about the possibility of only batting once in this Test match.”

“They want to bat long and get a huge first-innings total. India need to find a way early to get back into this game with early wickets, otherwise this game is slipping away very quickly. “That could very well happen today (Root passing him on all-time run-scorers list). It’s a great day for batting. What a remarkable career it has been,” said Ricky Ponting on Sky Sports’ broadcast.

As its stands out, Root did surpass the record of Ponting as he breached the 120 runs mark in the ongoing Test and the batter looked in solid form and eyeing for a lump sum score against his name. For the unversed, Sachin Tendulkar has scored 15,921 runs in his illustrious careers spanning over two decades and Root, if he keeps his form intact, can overtake the legend in achieving the rare milestone.