Joe Root needs a total of 159 runs to overhaul Mohammed Yousuf’s world record 1788 runs in a calendar year which he achieved in 2006.
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Joe Root, the England cricket team skipper, is on the cusp of a special record ahead of the Boxing Day Test against Australia in Melbourne. The England cricket team skipper, who has been facing plenty of criticism for his decisions in the first two Ashes Tests, has been the lone star with the bat for the visitors. The year 2021 has seen magnificent for Joe Root with the bat but for England, it has been disastrous. After winning a series in Sri Lanka, England was beaten 3-1 in India and they lost 0-1 to New Zealand. When India came to England, Virat Kohli’s side is leading the series 2-1.
But, the records for Root have been fabulous. Apparently, out of all of England’s scores in 2021, Root has scored 26 percent of the runs for the whole team in the year. Currently, Root has 1630 runs with an average of 62.69 with three fifties and six centuries. This is the most by an England player in a calendar year in history. However, heading into the MCG Boxing Day Test against Australia, Root is on the cusp of history.
Joe Root is just 159 runs away from breaking the record set by Mohammad Yousuf for the most runs in Tests in a calendar year. In 2006, Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan scored 1788 runs at an average of 99 with nine centuries. Prior to Yousuf, Graeme Smith of South Africa smashed 1656 runs in 2008, a year that saw South Africa win series in England and Australia for the first time in decades. Here is the list of record scorers in a calendar year.
| Players | Year | Matches | Innings | Runs | Average | Fifties | Hundreds |
| Mohammad Yousuf | 2006 | 11 | 19 | 1788 | 99.33 | 3 | 9 |
| Sir Viv Richards | 1976 | 11 | 19 | 1710 | 90 | 5 | 7 |
| Graeme Smith | 2008 | 15 | 25 | 1656 | 72 | 6 | 6 |
| Joe Root | 2021 | 14 | 27 | 1630 | 62.6 | 3 | 6 |
| Michael Clarke | 2012 | 11 | 18 | 1595 | 106.33 | 3 | 5 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 2010 | 14 | 23 | 1562 | 78.10 | 5 | 7 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 1979 | 18 | 27 | 1555 | 59.8 | 8 | 5 |
| Ricky Ponting | 2005 | 15 | 28 | 1544 | 67.13 | 6 | 6 |
| Ricky Ponting | 2003 | 11 | 18 | 1503 | 100.2 | 4 | 6 |
| Kumar Sangakkara | 2014 | 12 | 22 | 1493 | 71.09 | 9 | 4 |
The record by Yousuf has stood for 15 years and it will be fitting if Root can break the record. The England skipper has not scored a century in Australia and he will be determined to break the jinx in grand style. In 2013 and 2017, Root has scored eight fifties in Australia but has never managed to go past 100. It is this lack of conversion that has hurt Root’s average in his career as well as in Australia.
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This is the third time in his career that Root has gone past 1000 runs in a calendar year in Tests. In 2015 and 2016, Root scored 1385 and 1477 runs at an average of over 60 and 49 respectively. But, the year 2021 has been his best, especially when it comes to his tally of centuries.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground has been a decent venue for England in the last 21 years. They have played six Tests in this period, winning two, drawing one, and losing three. In 2017, they escaped a 0-5 whitewash as they managed to draw the Melbourne Test but the nature of the wicket came in for sharp criticism.
Root’s England cricket team has lost nine out of 10 Tests in Australia ever since 2013. The last time England won a series in Australia was in 2010/11 when the likes of Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen, and Jonathan Trott all contributed with the bat. James Anderson and Graeme Swann were brilliant with the ball. Since then, England have not competed with Australia Down Under.
