(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

Battling a spinal infection in Manchester, Farokh Engineer, 87, showed no signs of fatigue when he agreed to speak to Khaleej Times on Joe Root, the man expected to shoulder England's Ashes hopes when the historic series begins Down Under on Friday

Root is chasing his first hundred in Australia, the only blemish in his glittering career. But more importantly, a productive series with the bat would take him closer to the most famous of all Test batting records.

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With 13,543 runs from 158 Tests (39 hundreds), the 34-year-old is now only 2,384 runs behind India's Sachin Tendulkar's all-time record of 15,921 runs.

While the Australian media has put the spotlight on Root, analysing every aspect of a batsman who has hit a purple patch, scoring over 6000 runs in 69 matches at 55.21 with 22 hundreds since 2020, pundits from England have already started to visualise the English batter knocking the iconic Tendulkar off his perch.

Engineer, the former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman who moved to England in the 1970s, says he would be happy if a great player from his adopted home goes on to break the record of his legendary compatriot.

“Joe Root is a wonderful man. I know his parents; they are wonderful people. Being an Indian, Sachin is very close to my heart, of course,” he said.

“But knowing Sachin, I know he will be happy if Root gets the record because he is such a fine player and such a fine young man.

“Sachin knows records are meant to be broken. But, you know, nobody plays for records. They all want to win matches for their team. If records happen, they happen. But that's never the goal of any player.”

Resilience and honesty

While Engineer exchanges pleasantries with the Root family occasionally in England, Nadeem Khan, a former Pakistan Test player and the older brother of Moin Khan, saw the modern batting great take baby steps in cricket.

Khan is not surprised by the giant strides Root is now taking in Test cricket, having trained him at Yorkshire when England's batting linchpin was a wide-eyed teenager eager to learn how to play spin on turning tracks.

“What I have seen in Joe since his early years in cricket is the dedication, resilience and honesty, so I think he's the person who can achieve this incredible record,” Khan told the Khaleej Times.

“Yes, he has not scored a hundred in Australia, but no cricket expert can deny the fact that he's definitely capable of doing that technically, tactically and mentally!”

If Root, who is still only 34, continues his rich vein of form, experts believe he will eclipse Tendulkar in a couple of years.

“Yes, he's now threatening to break that record because of his commitment and dedication. I will be over the moon because somewhere along the line I think I have contributed a bit,” said Khan, a former left-arm spinner who had bowled a lot at Root in the nets.

The hours of practice helped Root build a solid game, one which has seen him put daylight between himself and his batting rivals with his sheer volume of runs.

At a time when most batters have struggled to hit top gear on challenging surfaces, Root has remained a picture of poise, blending classical stroke-play with neat defence.

Dilip Vengsarkar, the only foreign batsman to have hit three Test hundreds at Lord's, now turns to Root when he needs to motivate youngsters at his cricket academies in Mumbai and Pune.

“The way he has applied himself is exemplary. I always tell youngsters to learn from Root. He has the technique, hunger and the motivation to keep scoring runs,” the former Indian captain told the Khaleej Times.

“What has truly amazed me is his consistency. Also, the other advantage for Root, even if he doesn't score in two or three Test matches, is his solid technique - he can come out of a lean phase quicker than others.”

So can he break Sachin's record?

“I think he has got a very good chance,” Vengsarkar admitted.“He is still pretty young and he is extremely fit. Of course, as an Indian, I would love to see Sachin keep the record, but I have to take my hat off to Root because it's not easy to maintain Sachin-like consistency in Test cricket and he has done it beautifully.”

'Pleasantly surprised'

Ramiz Raja featured in the 1989 Karachi Test between Pakistan and India when a 16-year-old Tendulkar famously made his international debut.

While Tendulkar was tipped for greatness even before he broke into the Indian team, Raja admitted to being 'pleasantly surprised' by Root's quiet ascendance to the pinnacle of the sport.

“I am overwhelmed by the consistency that he has shown, especially in the last five years. You know he is a bit like Rahul Dravid, he has the same tenacity, the same approach to batting, and obviously he is a smart batsman,” the former Pakistan captain told the Khaleej Times.

“And batting in Test cricket is so hard, and the conditions in England are also not easy for batting. So credit to him, he has pleasantly surprised most of us that he has a real chance of breaking Sachin's record.”

But in terms of pure batting genius, pundits may never put Root in the pantheon of absolute legends even if the Englishman goes on to scale the peak as the highest run-getter.

“It's unfair to compare batsmen from different eras; the conditions and the rules were different. When I played, Viv Richards was obviously such a great player; he would hit them (bowlers) out of the park in Test cricket. I mean, he was ahead of his time,” Raja said.

“Then Sachin, of course, batted so beautifully. But Sachin burst onto the scene as a prodigy - Root was not nominated for this kind of greatness. So you have got to admire his resilience.

“Of course, from an aesthete's point of view, some other batters were more attractive, but in terms of consistency, it's mind-boggling to have a player in this era who is so consistent and who is now on the threshold of something very special.”

The desire to get better

Jonathan Trott, who scored a second-innings hundred in Root's first Test match as an England player in 2012, still sees the same passion for the game in his former teammate.

“He still has the same feelings and fanaticism about the game. He still loves cricket, talks cricket and watches a lot of cricket,” the former England batsman told the Khaleej Times.

But what surprised even Trott was Root's relentless urge to keep improving his game even as he inches closer to Tendulkar's record.

“The scary thing for me was when he said, 'I don't feel in good rhythm, I don't think I've been in good rhythm this summer.' He said that when he had just scored three Test hundreds against India a few months ago,” Trott recalled.

“So he still has that hunger and the desire to get better because if he's scoring three hundreds in the summer against a very good Indian side in a five-Test series, and thinks he's not in form, then I think the world needs to watch out!”

The Australians certainly need to watch out in the Ashes.

And a billion fans in India will keep watching every Root innings as nervously as they once watched Tendulkar every time the 'Little Master' walked out to bat for his country.

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