Former England Test captain Joe Root, on Saturday, inched closer to legendary India batter Sachin Tendulkar's all-time Test record after notching up his 34th century in the format in the ongoing 2nd Test against Sri Lanka at the Lord's in London. Root, who stands the closest to Sachin's iconic Test feat among active cricketers, later broke his silence on having one eye on the milestone.

Following his 206-ball 143 in the opening innings against Sri Lanka in the match, Root scored 103 off 121 in the second innings to help England, who are already 1-0 up in the three-match series, set an improbable target of 483 runs. With the twin centuries, taking his career tally to 34, he became the England batter with the most Test centuries, surpassing Sir Alastair Cook, who was present at the commentary box during both knocks.

The 34th hundred also took Root's career run tally to 12377 runs, leaving him only 96 runs away from not only making it to the elusive top five in the all-time list, but also surpassing Cook for the most-ever runs by an England batter in Test history.

However, the one that has been in discussion amid Root's century spree in Test cricket has been the possibility of him breaking Sachin's all-time career record of 15921 runs, which remains the most-ever by a batter in the history of the format. And with Root standing only 3544 runs away from the tally, it only seems a matter of time now.

However, when asked in a video shared by England Cricket on the possibility, he rather stressed on scoring runs to win matches for his team than on personal milestones.

“I just want to play, and try, and do my bit for the team and score the runs as many as I can and see where we get to. But there’s no better feeling I mean, it’s obviously amazing when, you score 100, you’d be lying if you said it wasn’t, a big part of why you start playing the game and what you love about it,” said Root.

“But there’s no better feeling than winning a Test match. So the more, it can affect games and the more you can, add to the team, the greater it is. So, that will be the main focus. And hopefully more days like this will come with that mentality,” he added.

Can Joe Root surpass Sachin Tendulkar?

In the last three years, Root has notched up 17 hundreds to amass 4554 runs in 48 Tests at an average of 56.92. The England batter is set to play one more Test in the ongoing series against Sri Lanka, before appearing in six more matches in the format in the remainder of the year- three against Pakistan and three more against New Zealand. With age still on his side, Root, 33, has all the chance to rise up in the all-time list on the upcoming tours.

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