Root can break Tendulkar's run tally, predicts Ponting

Australia legend Ricky Ponting thinks England batter Joe Root has every chance of overtaking both he and Sachin Tendulkar and becoming Test cricket's greatest run-scorer.

Root only recently scored his 12,000th Test run to become the seventh highest run-scorer of all time and the 33-year-old has second-placed Ponting and Tendulkar's overall record within sight.

The English right-hander is within 1,351 runs of Ponting (13,378) and less than 4,000 runs adrift of Tendulkar (15,921) and could cut into this even further during his side's ICC World Test Championship series against Sri Lanka that commences later this month.

Ponting paid compliment to Root when discussing his batting heroics on the most recent edition of The ICC Review and believes the world's No.1 ranked Test batter can reach even greater heights should his current rich vein of form continue.

"He could potentially do that," Ponting told host Sanjana Ganesan when asked if Root could overtake Tendulkar's massive tally of runs in Test cricket.

"He is 33 years of age…(more than) 3000 runs behind. It depends how many Test matches they play, but if they're playing 10 to 14 Test matches a year and if you're scoring 800 to 1000 runs a year, then that sort of says he's only three or four years off getting there. So that'll take him to 37 (years of age).

"If his hunger's still there, then there's every chance that he could do it."

Root scored his 32nd Test century against the West Indies last month in Nottingham in what was the fourth time he has reached triple figures since the start of last year.

While Root's Test century tally is still well adrift of Tendulkar's massive tally of 51, Ponting noted how much better the England batter had become in converting his good starts into big scores in recent times.

"He is someone that in the last couple of years has got better and better," Ponting added.

"There's always talk around batters reaching their prime in their early 30s and he's certainly done that.

"It's been his conversion rates being the big thing. Four or five years ago, he was making a lot of 50s and struggling to go on and make hundreds and he's gone the other way recently.

"Almost every time he gets to 50 now, he goes on and makes a big hundred. So that's been the real turnaround for him."