Some perspective on Root

[chasingthedon]

There's been much talk about the greatness of Root as he mounts up runs in 2021. So far, he's amassed 1398 Test runs over 21 innings this year, which is quite something and he's on the verge of creating a new record, with five more Test innings left in which to achieve it.

I was wondering how this compares to Bradman in his pomp. Obviously the Don didn't play anywhere near as many innings in a calendar year, but I thought it would be enlightening to compare his sequences of 21 innings and see how they compare.

As Bradman played 80 Test innings, that gives us 60 separate 21-innings sequences, so I totalled the runs he made over each sequence.

Of those 60 sequences, Bradman exceeded 1398 runs on 59 occasions - he only missed once. So 59 times the great man achieved more than 1398 runs over 21 innings, with 20 times over 2000 runs, and a high of 2445.

Just a thought.

 

[Adders]

So your saying that Joe Root at his best is not as good as Bradman? Who'd have thought....

 

[Midwinter]

Next best after Bradman ?

 

[TheJediBrah]

If Root is this good, does that make him an All Time Great Root

 

[honestbharani]

AT Groot

 

[Son Of Coco]

If Root is this good, does that make him an All Time Great Root

He's elevated himself from just a Root to an amazing ****.

 

[SteveNZ]

Pretty amazing record. Just over 40 v the two Australasian teams, over 50 against the rest bar Ireland/Bangladesh and 62 v India with a big sample size.

Very interested to see how he goes in Australia this summer against Cummins, Hazelwood, Lyon and Starc.

 

[Shady Slim]

top, for me, though what ever goats your moat tbh i don't judge

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

I like the stat in the OP but feels like it gives more perspective on how ridiculous Bradman was rather than denigrating Root at all.

 

[Howe_zat]

Yeah. Thread should be called 'some perspective on Bradman'.

Root chasing the record for runs in a calendar year is fun to follow but I think most know it's partly down to a weird fixture list. The SL series was delayed to January in the same year that we played long home and away series against India and have the Ashes coming up. A star batsman averaging 70 for a year is not really that weird.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Think I read or heard somewhere Root's already had more test innings this year than Mo Yousuf did in his annus mirabilis and he's about 400 runs short of the great man's aggregate still.

 

[The Sean]

Think I read or heard somewhere Root's already had more test innings this year than Mo Yousuf did in his annus mirabilis and he's about 400 runs short of the great man's aggregate still.

Yep, 21 innings so far (with potentially as many as ten more to come) - MoYo and Richards both only played 19 in 2006 and 1976 respectively.

 

[Howe_zat]

Also, what does make Root's 2021 a bit special isn't really how much he's scoring, it's the extent to which he's outscoring all his team mates.

Pakistan 2006 couldn't really decide on their batting order, but as well as Younis averaging 60 they also had guys like Afridi and Malik coming in and doing well. When Yousuf hit 173 against India that year he was one of four Pakistanis to ton up, and India responded with an opening partnership of 410. In general there are some really high scoring matches in that run.


Richards' 1976 was less high scoring but he still got to be part of a settled team that had 4 other guys hit tons and get good results. Like Yousuf, he hit half of his nation's hundreds that year.


Which is not really true of the current England captain. 6 out of 7 total hundreds, and the guy with the 3rd most runs is averaging less than 20.

 

[Bijed]

Tbf to the OP, I don't think his intention was at all to throw shade on Root, and I do actually quite like it when incredible batting feats happen and it basically turns out to be equivalent to Bradman's level of performance.

Howe is bang on though - the lack of runs from any team-mates doesn't necessarily make Root's performance objectively better (it does a bit, but it is in large part because said team-mates aren't very good) but it definitely makes English fans value what Root's done a whole lot more

 

[Victor Ian]

Root current streak reminds me of 'Is someone better remembered who starts off awesome or who finishes awesome'. Hopefully Root's form snaps Smith out of his lull and they score mountains of runs this summer head to head (but without head playing)

 

[honestbharani]

Root current streak reminds me of 'Is someone better remembered who starts off awesome or who finishes awesome'. Hopefully Root's form snaps Smith out of his lull and they score mountains of runs this summer head to head (but without head playing)

Daily reminder that Head > Wade.

/PEWS

 

[_00_deathscar]

Howe is bang on though - the lack of runs from any team-mates doesn't necessarily make Root's performance objectively better (it does a bit, but it is in large part because said team-mates aren't very good) but it definitely makes English fans value what Root's done a whole lot more

No, but he’s also pretty far ahead of almost everyone else (more innings too but a lot of others are struggling), even accounting for something like last 2 years or so when it seems like batsmen have struggled even harder to put runs on the board.