India, June 21 -- Whenever Joe Root, who reached 14,000 Test runs on Saturday, goes past Sachin Tendulkar to become the highest run-scorer in the longest format of the game, will he be considered better than the Indian genius? Not by the people who have seen both cricketers in action but those who may have not seen them play might be inclined to go by numbers. As far as comparisons are concerned, Root can be considered in the same vein as Tendulkar when one is discussing data, but when one looks at the other aspects of batsmanship, the difference between the two is quite big.

To begin with, aesthetically, there is no comparison, even though Joe Root is quite pleasing on the eye. Tendulkar's shot-making was poetry in motion. If you have t...