‘He is beyond Fab 4’: Former India opener lauds Joe Root for his incredible consistency in Test cricket

Joe Root has been enjoying a stellar run with the bat in Test cricket for England. The former England skipper has been in tremendous form and has been piling on runs for fun in the whites. He has been incredibly consistent over the last couple of years and has already breached the 10,000 run-mark in the longest format.

After helping England register a dominant Test series win over New Zealand at home, Root continued his sublime form in the recently-concluded one-off fifth Test against India at Edgbaston. The former England skipper slammed an unbeaten century in the second innings to help his team pull off their highest-ever run-chase in Test cricket and thrash India by seven wickets.

He also surpassed the likes of Ricky Ponting and Viv Richards among others to achieve the elusive feat of scoring most Test centuries against India. He now has nine tons against India which is the most by any batter in Test cricket. Former India opener Aakash Chopra recently lauded Root for his consistency.

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Chopra said Root is no more the part of ‘Fab 4’ but is already better than the remaining trio of Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson as far as Test cricket is considered. The term ‘Fab 4’ was coined for Kohli, Root, Williamson and Smith as the top four batters in the world in the present era.

“Joe Root has scored more than 10,000 Test runs and 25% of that have come in last two years. When Steve Smith and Virat Kohli were on 27 Test hundreds, Root was on 15-16. Now they are still on 27 and Root has raced to 28 hundreds,” Chopra said in a video on his YouTube channel.

“We used to feel he isn’t a part of the ‘Fab 4’ and I still feel so, because now he is beyond them. The audacity to hit Trent Boult and Shardul Thakur for reverse sweeps shows that he has all the shots,” he added.

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Root is currently ahead of both Kohli and Smith in the list of batters with the most centuries in Test cricket. The England star has 28 centuries and 10458 runs to his name in 121 matches while Kohli has scored 8074 runs in 102 matches, including 27 centuries. Smith, on the other hand, too has 27 centuries to his name having amassed 8016 runs in 86 Tests in his career so far.