"The only bowler he does not quite line up is Jasprit Bumrah" - Michael Vaughan on Joe Root
Former England skipper Michael Vaughan reckons Jasprit Bumrah is the only currently-active bowler that Joe Root struggles against. With the Yorkshire batter becoming England's highest run-getter in Tests in the ongoing match against Pakistan in Multan, Vaughan believes bowlers nowadays are waiting for Root to make mistakes.
On day three in Multan, the former England captain overhauled Sir Alastair Cook's tally of 12472 runs. The home summer had seen Root become only the second England batter to go past 12000 Test runs as he registered three centuries.
In his column for The Telegraph, the 49-year-old claimed that it was normal for almost all batters to struggle against Bumrah, given his quality. The 2005 Ashes-winning captain also reckons Root's resume remains incomplete without a hundred in Australia.
"The only bowler he does not quite line up is Jasprit Bumrah, I reckon, but who does? He will already be working on that and thinking about how to manage him next summer. At the moment, bowlers are waiting for him to make a mistake. There is still plenty for him to tick off, including that missing hundred in Australia. But I watch him bat in Australia and do not see a major technical problem, he just has not cracked three figures yet."
In 24 innings, Bumrah has dismissed the English right-hander on nine occasions and was especially effective against him during the home series earlier this year.
"No one has played the different forms of the game better than him" - Michael Vaughan on Joe Root
Vaughan has also declared that no one can stop Root from overtaking Sachin Tendulkar's tally of Test runs if he plays for a few more years, adding:
"No one has played the different forms of the game better than him, and he has got the runs to show for it. If he plays as long as I am sure he will, he will overtake Sachin Tendulkar and be the leading Test run-scorer. More than just being a great player, he does it all with a smile on his face, and is simply the greatest example for young kids to follow."
Tendulkar, who made his debut in 1989, retired after scoring 15921 runs in an astonishing 200 Tests.