India, May 23 -- In the shadow of Trent Bridge's century-makers and a lopsided scoreboard reading 498/3, Joe Root's 34 wasn't exactly headline material after Day 1 of England's one-off Test against Zimbabwe. However, it carried a weight that history will feel: 13,000 Test runs. No one had ever reached the mark faster. For Root, and for the supporters of the game around the globe, it was another signal that the mountain long thought unscalable - Sachin Tendulkar's monumental tally of 15,921 runs - might just have a relentless climber locked in to conquer.

Root got there in his 153rd Test, leaving behind a pantheon of greats in his wake. Jacques Kallis (159 Tests), Rahul Dravid (160), Ricky Ponting (162), and even Tendulkar himself (163) a...