England stalwart Joe Root – the man closest in-line to possibly beat Sachin Tendulkar‘s record of the most Test runs – made a witty remark to brush off his nation’s recent loss to Sri Lanka in the final Test of the three-match series. Taking a reference from the world of music, Root compared the England cricket team to popular rock band Coldplay, stating that “Coldplay can’t be No. 1 every week”. After winning the first two Tests, England lost the final one by eight wickets.

Root, who was awarded England’s Player of the Series and the ‘Player of the Summer’ after the match, quipped on the defeat.

“We are not always going to get it right all of the time. For 90% of the summer we have. We have shown what a good team we can be. I don’t think we played our best cricket this week and that is going to happen from time to time. Coldplay can’t be number one every week,” he said.

Root finished with 375 runs in the three-Test series against Sri Lanka, to follow up his total of 291 from the series against West Indies. At 33, Root may be playing the best cricket of his red-ball career.

Root hailed the performance of the England Test team during the summer.

“We are constantly learning and evolving as a group and it is nice to contribute to that. It is important we are authentic to what we are as a team and what brings out the best in our individual players,” he said.

Closing in on Sachin

Joe Root currently boasts the most Test runs among any batter of his generation, and sits 3,519 runs behind Sachin Tendulkar’s record of the most runs in Test history. With age on his side and England regularly playing Test cricket, Root could close in on Sachin’s record soon.

Root is also the only active cricketer with more than 10,000 Test runs.