Joe Root reached 13,000 runs in Test cricket during day one of the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, joining four legends on an elite list.
Root entered the first Test of the 2025 summer with 12,972 runs to his name from 152 matches, needing another 28 to reach the milestone only ever crossed by Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, and Jacques Kallis before. He got there in the 80th over of England's first innings before being dismissed for 34.
How do the five men at the top of the run-scoring charts in Test cricket compare across various metrics?
Top five run-scorers in Test cricket
| Player | Mat | Inns | Not outs | Runs | HS | Avg | 100s | 50s | Ducks |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 200 | 329 | 33 | 15921 | 248* | 53.78 | 51 | 68 | 14 |
| Ricky Ponting | 168 | 287 | 29 | 13378 | 257 | 51.85 | 41 | 62 | 17 |
| Jacques Kallis | 166 | 280 | 40 | 13289 | 224 | 55.37 | 45 | 58 | 16 |
| Rahul Dravid | 164 | 286 | 32 | 13288 | 270 | 52.31 | 36 | 63 | 8 |
| Joe Root | 153 | 279 | 24 | 13006 | 262 | 50.80 | 36 | 65 | 13 |
Can Root overtake Sachin's run tally?
Tendulkar, by far the highest scorer, is more than 2,500 runs ahead of Ponting, Kallis, and Dravid, all of whom are sandwiched between 13,288 and 13,378 runs - a gap of only 90.
Interestingly, Tendulkar was the quickest to reach 13,000 runs in terms of number of innings batted (267), but the slowest in terms of matches played (163). Root, on the other hand, is the slowest in terms of innings (279) and quickest in terms of Tests (153). Kallis reached the landmark in his 269th innings, Ponting in his 276th, and Dravid in his 278th.
Barring what would be a sudden retirement, Root should surpass Ponting's run-tally, possibly even by the end of this home summer, where he's supposed to play five more Tests against India.
For him to go past Tendulkar and end up as the highest run-scorer in Test history, Root would need roughly another 60 knocks if he were to produce runs at the same he's been doing since the start of 2020, which is around 49 runs per innings. That translates to a minimum of 30 Test matches. England have played an average of 13 Tests per year since 2020. Assuming a similar rate going forward, Root could potentially break the ultimate barrier by the end of 2027.
Also read: When could Root pass Tendulkar? The remaining records in his sights
Who has the best average?
Kallis is miles ahead in the group in terms of averages, with 55.37. Root currently is the only one among the five to have an average below 51. Kallis' average, however, is helped by his 40 not outs, also the most among the five. Root, by comparison, has remained unbeaten only 24 times.
The gap between the five narrows when purely considering the output they provided every innings.
| Player | Runs Per Innings |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 48.39 |
| Jacques Kallis | 47.46 |
| Ricky Ponting | 46.61 |
| Joe Root | 46.59 |
| Rahul Dravid | 46.46 |
Tendulkar is still in a league of his own, being the only one to have a runs per innings of more than 48. However, only one run separates Kallis at second and Dravid at fifth. Root (46.59) and Ponting (46.61) currently have nearly identical runs per innings.
100s, 50s, and conversion rates
Tendulkar remains the only cricketer with more than 50 Test tons. Root is currently level with Dravid at 36. Since the start of 2020, he has scored 19 hundreds in 64 Tests, averaging one three-figure score every 3.36 matches. If he keeps up (or improves) that rate of century-making, Root will overtake Tendulkar's tally in another 50-odd games.
Interestingly, despite playing the least number of Tests among the five, Root already has the second-highest number of fifties - 65 - only three behind Tendulkar's tally of 68. Perhaps no calculations are required to predict that Root will end up at the top of that list.
In terms of 50-to-100 conversion rates, Kallis is at the top, having converted 45 out of his 103 fifty-plus scores into hundreds. Every 2.28 times Kallis crossed 50, he would go on to score a hundred. Root, on the other hand, takes 2.80 fifty-plus scores to make one hundred, the worst of the lot.
| Player | 100s | 50s | 50+ scores | 50+ scores per 100 |
| Jacques Kallis | 45 | 58 | 103 | 2.28 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 51 | 68 | 119 | 2.33 |
| Ricky Ponting | 41 | 62 | 103 | 2.51 |
| Rahul Dravid | 36 | 63 | 99 | 2.75 |
| Joe Root | 36 | 65 | 101 | 2.80 |
Kallis is also at the top in terms of frequency of scoring hundreds. Having played only more innings than Root has at the time of writing, Kallis has 45 hundreds to his name, nine more than Root (and Dravid, who played six more knocks than Kallis).
| Player | Inns | 100s | Innings per 100+ score |
| Jacques Kallis | 280 | 45 | 6.22 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 329 | 51 | 6.45 |
| Ricky Ponting | 287 | 41 | 7.00 |
| Joe Root | 279 | 36 | 7.75 |
| Rahul Dravid | 286 | 36 | 7.94 |
It's worth mentioning here how Root has essentially turbo-charged his hundred-scoring frequency since the start of 2020. He has scored 19 centuries and 20 half-centuries from 115 innings in this period - a hundred every 6.05 knocks. Before 2020, he was only scoring a hundred every 9.64 innings.
Also read: England No.3 extends world record with eighth Test hundred against eighth Test nation
Home and away records breakdown
Ricky Ponting has the highest average at home among the five (56.97) and the lowest average away (46.40). Tendulkar on the other hand, averaged 54.74 outside home - the best among the five - more than his home average of 52.67. Dravid and Tendulkar are the only two in this group to have a positive average difference (higher average away than at home).
| Home | Away/Neutral | ||||||||
| Player | Avg Diff | Runs | Avg | 100s | 50s | Runs | Avg | 100s | 50s |
| Ricky Ponting | -10.57 | 7578 | 56.97 | 23 | 38 | 5800 | 46.40 | 18 | 24 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | +2.07 | 7216 | 52.67 | 22 | 32 | 8705 | 54.74 | 29 | 36 |
| Jacques Kallis | -2.82 | 7035 | 56.73 | 23 | 34 | 6254 | 53.91 | 22 | 24 |
| Joe Root | -7.70 | 6792 | 54.77 | 21 | 32 | 6214 | 47.07 | 15 | 33 |
| Rahul Dravid | +1.68 | 5598 | 51.35 | 15 | 27 | 7690 | 53.03 | 21 | 36 |
Root averages 54.77 at home, which drops down to 47.07 away. His split of half-centuries is almost identical - 32 vs 33 - but he has six more tons at home than outside - 21 vs 15, which is a mirror image of Dravid's home-and-away century-split.
While Root is not the best among the five highest run-scorers in Test cricket in almost any metric, he has the advantage of being the only active one among them. The trajectory his Test career has been on in the last five years, it wouldn't be a surprise if he appears at the top of most of these lists two to three years down the line.
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