'You Will Be Next Sachin for England': This 2013 Social Media Post on Joe Root is Viral

Joe Root became the highest run scorer for England on the third day of the opening Test against Pakistan. In the first innings of the match, currently being played in Multan, Root scored a century and surpassed former England skipper Alastair Cook’s tally of 12472 Test runs. Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting and Rahul Dravid are currently ahead of Root on the list of highest Test run scorers. The Master Blaster currently sits atop the elite list of batters with 15921 Test runs under his belt. As Root approaches Tendulkar’s humongous Test record, an old and prophetic comment about the England batter has now resurfaced on social media.

The comment was shared on X (formerly Twitter) by a social media user, as a response to one of Joe Root’s posts. In his reply, the social media user had talked about the prospect of Joe Root replicating Sachin Tendulkar’s success. The comment was shared in November 2013, while Root made his international debut in December 2012.

“Joe Root I knw [know] u [you] wanna b [be] Joe but really feel u [you] wil [will] b [be] nxt [next] Sachin fr [for] England. All d [the] best for Ashes,” read the now-viral post.

Reacting to that now-viral comment, one person wrote, “Bro predicted the future.”

“You were right bro,” read another reaction.

This person commented, “Arre shripad bhai…wo sirf 3500 run peeche hai ..tod dega, [Hey Shripad bro, he is just 3500 runs behind, he will break the record].”

Alastair Cook himself recently talked about Joe Root’s chances of dethroning Sachin Tendulkar from the position of highest run scorer in Test cricket. “I can see him overhauling Sachin Tendulkar’s record. You could say Sachin is still the favourite but just. I don’t see that happening for Root to lose that hunger and ability to keep driving himself forward for the next couple of years,” Cook said while commentating on BBC radio during the first Test between England and Pakistan.

Joe Root scored his 35th Test hundred during the series opener against Pakistan in Multan. He breached the 150-run mark in the first innings of the Test. Harry Brook also supported Root ably scoring a terrific hundred.

Pakistan posted a mammoth total of 556 in the first innings of the Test. Skipper Shan Masood led from the front and came up with a sublime knock of 151 for the hosts.