Who faced tougher bowlers in test cricket — Sachin Tendulkar or Joe Root?

[Manucrick]

Who faced tougher bowlers in test cricket  — Sachin Tendulkar or Joe Root? I am asking this question just out of curiosity; the people here have more cricket knowledge than I do

Edited December 4, 2025 by Manucrick

[Ajju]

Thala Dhoni

[Manucrick]

Just now, Ajju said:

Thala Dhoni

Very funny  

[vvvslaxman]

Sachin faced tougher umpires

[Manucrick]

1 minute ago, vvvslaxman said:

Sachin faced tougher umpires

Steve Bucknor.  

[diga]

2 minutes ago, Manucrick said:

Steve Bucknor.  

And Srilankan BC cooray 

[vvvslaxman]

One of the biggest advantage thst root had was he got to play so many tests in such a short span. In 12 years Root played double the number of tests. He got to face same bowlers most of his career. Also when he was at top of his game he played so many tests during that phase similar to Kohli played a lot of tests during peak

Tendulkar faced Donald and Steyn. Both played one after another.

[Chakdephatte]

It is Root. Since 2018, we are living in a fast bowling friendly era. Sachin faced tough attacks in the 90s but had the fortune of having some legends batting around him and some really flat tracks 2004 onwards. Sachin's bigger problem was lack of DRS and not bowling attacks. 

[Insidious]

Lol at root facing tougher bowlers. Has Root ever faced a single spinner as good as Warne, Murli, Saqlain. Besides, Sachin played in an era in which bowl tampering, chucking was allowed!

[goose]

48 minutes ago, Chakdephatte said:

It is Root. Since 2018, we are living in a fast bowling friendly era. Sachin faced tough attacks in the 90s but had the fortune of having some legends batting around him and some really flat tracks 2004 onwards. Sachin's bigger problem was lack of DRS and not bowling attacks. 

 

this is a common fallacy, sachin did not have legends around him in 90s well not most of it. when dravid and ganguly arrived in 1996 he was already 7 years into his career and being compared to bradman. the support he alleged to have came when his own career was on the wane

[Chakdephatte]

2 minutes ago, Insidious said:

Lol at root facing tougher bowlers. Has Root ever faced a single spinner as good as Warne, Murli, Saqlain. Besides, Sachin played in an era in which bowl tampering, chucking was allowed!

India handled all of them well. No team had a great 4th bowler in that era. Fast bowling has quality but no depth. Few quality spinners don't prove anything. 

 

Last six seven years, the wickets fell the quickest. See the entire list here-- 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/give-us-more-like-2024-the-fewest-draws-the-fastest-scoring-and-the-quickest-wicket-taking-1467300

 

2018 was the best year for fast bowling post WW. Without any Bazball. Far lesser batsmen are averaging 50 since then. In fact, I believe apart from fab 3, no one does. Earlier we had Lara, Ponting, Dravid, Kallis, Smith, Gambhir, Sehwag, Chaderpaul, Sanga, Yousuf and many piling like crazy in the same years. 

 

[Chakdephatte]

3 minutes ago, goose said:

 

this is a common fallacy, sachin did not have legends around him in 90s well not most of it. when dravid and ganguly arrived in 1996 he was already 7 years into his career and being compared to bradman. the support he alleged to have came when his own career was on the wane

 

Actually, the average score of India in first innings during Sachin was higher than England's during Root. Some of these sources can't be shared but some are public via howstat. 

 

 

For example, Sachin scored 14.82% of his team runs. Kohli who averaged far lesser scored 14.6%. Root with a lesser raw score gets 15.7% team runs, England conditions is a factor there. 

 

This is a low scoring era. 

[goose]

wrong comparison. you have to look at how tendulakr fared against a top bowler of his time, versus how other bats of his time fared against that bowler. then repeat for root

[Chakdephatte]

Just now, goose said:

wrong comparison. you have to look at how tendulakr fared against a top bowler of his time, versus how other bats of his time fared against that bowler. then repeat for root

Tough task but possible. However, shouldn't you define toughness by average of all bowlers and not the number of greats?

[goose]

8 minutes ago, Chakdephatte said:

Tough task but possible. However, shouldn't you define toughness by average of all bowlers and not the number of greats?

 

greatness is a label we confer on a player by comparing him to what others are doing at the same time. that should also be the basis of any comparison even in retrospect

[Insidious]

14 minutes ago, Chakdephatte said:

India handled all of them well. No team had a great 4th bowler in that era. Fast bowling has quality but no depth. Few quality spinners don't prove anything. 

 

Last six seven years, the wickets fell the quickest. See the entire list here-- 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/give-us-more-like-2024-the-fewest-draws-the-fastest-scoring-and-the-quickest-wicket-taking-1467300

 

2018 was the best year for fast bowling post WW. Without any Bazball. Far lesser batsmen are averaging 50 since then. In fact, I believe apart from fab 3, no one does. Earlier we had Lara, Ponting, Dravid, Kallis, Smith, Gambhir, Sehwag, Chaderpaul, Sanga, Yousuf and many piling like crazy in the same years. 

 

It only shows how mediocre the new generation batsmen are. The fact that Indian batsman used to handle Murali, Warne well and now struggling against Harmer, santer further prove my point.

 

[tapandrun]

There can be no objective comparison between 2 v.diff eras , ppl will give superficial stats and names thats it.

 

Because a lot of things are not standard there it hard even to compare cricketers in same era too .::: Ground size is not same , playing conditions are not same (pitches and other natural factors wind, cloudy etc...)

 

Sachin played on some of the flatest pitches in Ind , root played on seaming and swinging pitches most of his time.

 

Sachin played bowler like warn, murali , shoib, lee there have never been bowlers in that in any era.

 

You can compare batters playing in same era a bit on who played better bowling like if there is a batter who plays/scores mostly vs b level team then there can be such comparion..

[goose]

the other massive difference between sachin and root. everyone is ramping up their opinion of root the older he gets. fine that ticks the longevity box. which sachin ticked too. but theres lots of other boxes which should be ticked well before you near the end of a career. that's why sangakkara, kallis, ponting only really made people sit up and take note when they had the stats. that put in you in 2nd tier. sachin had NO batting records or stats when he was being compared to bradman

Edited December 4, 2025 by goose

[raki05]

5 minutes ago, goose said:

the other massive difference between sachin and root. everyone is ramping up their opinion of root the older he gets. fine that ticks the longevity box. which sachin ticked too. but theres lots of other boxes which should be ticked well before you near the end of a career. that's why sangakkara, kallis, ponting only really made people sit up and take note when they had the stats. that put in you in 2nd tier. sachin had NO batting records or stats when he was being compared to bradman

And as if Root scoring all runs on swinging and spinning condition. Most if his centuries are when conditions are flat. In current aussie attack has jist one good bowler …. Root nemesis Cummins and Hazzlewood is not even playing.

[Prabhdeep Singh]

You need to consider this, Sachin maintained record playing 2 formats fully. Flare in his game.

 

Root is a nobody in T20 & ODI, boring to watch, nothing exceptional. No flare in his game. Root more comparable to players like Kallis, Sangakarra, Border, Dravid and Younis Khan, i.e boring but effective.

 

Also since Stokes became captain i.e pitches since 2022 in England have been on the flatter side.