By Phil Walker

That’s the thing about Joe Root, you barely notice him, and then you look up at the scoreboard to see he’s 33 years old and an elder statesman of the world game. So swiftly are the records cascading that it’s tempting to wonder what will be left when he finishes. In the last week he’s eased past Mahela Jayawardene, Shiv Chanderpaul and now, at Edgbaston, in front of the man himself, Brian Lara, into the top seven run-scorers in Test match history.
‘Root is a routine 18 months from overtaking all but one of those ahead of him; after that it’s a straight endurance race to the ...