'He's got a lot of great cricket in front of him' - Shane Watson backs Joe Root to reach close to Sachin Tendulkar's Test tally

England team defeated New Zealand in the first Test at Lord’s last week, thanks to an impeccable century from their talisman Joe Root. The former captain remained unbeaten on 115 and en route to his 26th Test century, he reached the glorious landmark of 10,000 Test runs. Shane Watson has backed the Englishman to get close to Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most runs in Test cricket.

Root became the 14th cricketer overall and only the second Englishman after Alastair Cook to the 10,000-run mark. Watson believes that the Englishman is likely to finish as the top run-getter among the ‘Fab Four’ and is likely to get near the records of Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar. Notably, Tendulkar finished with 15921 runs in Tests while Ponting retired with 13378 Test runs to his name.

“He’s as good as anyone to be able to get as close as he can. For sure, he’s got a lot of great cricket in front of him, so I think he is going to get very close. Just by seeing where Joe Root is right now, he is the youngest one with Kane Williamson, who is 31 as well. Those two have still got a fair way to go. I think Joe Root is going to finish on top. For the other guys, it depends on how much cricket they continue to play. They’ve still got a lot of cricket left in them,” Watson said to Isa Guha on the ICC Review show.

To see the Fab Four at the peak of their powers is always special: Shane Watson

The former Australian all-rounder also remarked that Kohli and Smith, who have 8043 and 8010 Test runs respectively, will be up there among all-time run-getters. He also believes that the cricketing world has been lucky to witness such high-caliber batters in their prime in the last few years.

“Virat Kohli and Steve Smith, they can still churn out the runs for the next three to four years. You never know, they’ll get right up there with the all-time run-scorers as well. We’ve been very fortunate to have those four in world cricket over the last six to seven years. To see them at the peak of their powers is always special,” added Watson.