The name Charles Bannerman may not ring a bell. Neither would the relevance of a March day at Melbourne, way back in 1877. But for those invested in the classicism of Test cricket and for statisticians obsessed with numbers, March 15 of that year should have a resonance.

On that day, which ushered in cricket’s inaugural Test, Australian opener Bannerman scored the first ever run in the game’s longest format. He went on to score 165 before retiring hurt and the host eventually defeated rival England by 45 runs. Since those old days, cricket has grown and evolved, and also dealt with disruptions like the two World Wars and the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Numbers and obsessive fandom

Tests and the two limited-overs variants of ODIs and Twenty20Is presently co-exist, carving out distinct loyalties and granular commercial muscle. While results matter as they define the yardstick for judgement in a team sport, individual numbers offer relevance, trivia and also fuel obsessive fandom.

Readers of a certain vintage would have maintained a scrapbook, jotting down numbers stacked up by batters and bowlers. In the 1980s, it may have been a notepad with tables listed for Sunil Gavaskar, Vivian Richards, Javed Miandad, David Gower, Allan Border, Gordon Greenidge and Dilip Vengsarkar, with their individual scores in a Test noted down diligently, and then it would boil down to the whole thrill of finding out who was heading the batting race.

Gavaskar scaled ‘Mount 10,000’ with that dainty late cut of Pakistani spinner Ijaz Faqih at Ahmedabad in 1987. At that time it seemed too high a peak for anyone to scale again. It was presumed as being akin to Sir Don Bradman’s Test average of 99.94, a miracle that perhaps will remain untouched for eternity.

But cricket always presses forward, building new forts, moving past old ones, and triggering debates about different eras. Gavaskar’s world records, be it 10,122 Test runs or 34 centuries, eventually gave way to the modern stars even if it was his contemporary Border who first went past his Test tally.

Presently the Mumbai legend is placed 13th in the run-getters’ list and is joint-sixth when it comes to hundreds. In both wings, a fellow Mumbaikar, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, reigns supreme with 15,921 runs and 51 tons. Again Tendulkar’s numerical accomplishment is seen as a bridge too far to cross for batters, who have followed his path towards greatness.

Change, the only constant

But then change is a constant and Tendulkar’s record in ODIs — 49 centuries — had to cede territory to Virat Kohli’s current tally of 50! But as for Tests, Tendulkar’s rarefied heights are seen as too far up in the stratosphere for mortals to ascend. Yet, whispers have begun with an incredulous air about a Yorkshire man perhaps having Tendulkar in his sights.

At 33, Joe Root is still doing what he does best: accumulating runs. All this while staying under the radar, unlike the ‘look at me’ swag of a Kohli, the ‘ain’t I cute’ aura of a Kane Williamson or the ‘twitch and turn’ hyperactivity of a Steve Smith. Against the West Indians, Root was among the runs, including a 122 at Nottingham’s Trent Bridge.

Importantly, he now has 12,027 runs from 143 Tests, averaging 50.11, and with 32 hundreds to boot. He is 3,894 runs away from Tendulkar’s peak and the fine print says much could change in the coming years. Limbs may tire, form could evaporate, desire might wane, but still remember this, there is a possibility. That could fuel Root’s hopes, presuming he is thinking about it but not telling any of us.

The sporting 30s is seen as a senior citizen zone, when in real life, at that same age, men and women are still finding their way, be it careers, hearts, matrimony or the whole purpose of life. However, modern fitness and medical standards and the assistance of support staff ranging from physios to nutritionists have aided the greatest of sportspersons to keep that twilight zone hanging around for long.

Years ago, there was a time when South African Graeme Smith was making waves in his debut season. Runs were plundered at will and the usual ‘Oh, will he chase down Sachin?’ talk did the rounds. Sport is a combination of a set history, a twitchy present and a future abounding with surprises. Speculation about the new challenger was rife even when Tendulkar was the reigning god of the willows, despite Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis being his shadows.

There was also a phase when Imran Khan, just to perhaps inspire Inzamam-ul-Haq, said that the latter is a better player than Tendulkar. But Smith was seen as being cut from a different cloth and it so happened that Tendulkar was training at Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium.

It was a day with its slivers of sun, puffs of clouds and birdsong from Cubbon Park, but the maestro was in his zen mode, striking the ball both with care and vigour. Once the nets concluded and the sweat dried, Tendulkar began to stride towards the pavilion. A few scribes walked beside him and one television presenter asked the legend: “So Sachin, what do you think about Graeme Smith?”

Tendulkar paused, a half-smile creasing his face, forehead wrinkled in thought, and then said: “He looks good, is scoring runs but we have to wait a bit, we have to give him some time”. This was a man speaking after deep introspection and never was there a hint of envy.

The dynamics of longevity

He was right too because players making a splash on debut often tend to struggle in their second and third seasons, as by then the bowlers have observed their flaws, which then get lashed with boiling oil and rough salt in full public glare. Smith, having retired in 2014, is now 17th on the list with a tally of 9,265.

Root has dealt with the vagaries of form, survived various Ashes battles, scored runs all over, against varying attacks and on diverse surfaces. He also has seemingly bolted well ahead of (Steve) Smith, Kohli and Williamson. Devoid of the pressures of captaincy, which is the preserve of Ben Stokes, Root can lengthen his career in the pursuit of runs and triumphs for England.

In the years ahead, there will be tussles with the Indians and Australians, tough rivals adept at flipping pressure. Additionally, Root has to keep his head clear on the approach he wants to follow. Coach Brendon McCullum’s ‘The horses should gallop all the time’ instruction may not always sit easy.

Busy Root is from the obdurate soil of Yorkshire that in the past threw up a Geoffrey Boycott, who used to compete with Gavaskar for batting glory. It is delicious that decades down the line, the Yorkshire-Mumbai joust has pitted Root against Tendulkar’s jaw-dropping Test runs. Bannerman, resting in his grave, would never have imagined what he has unleashed.