Steve Smith will not be too disappointed if Joe Root fails to improve on his highest score (89) in Tests in Australia in the Ashes later this season. However, the Australian batting maestro believes his England rival is capable of bettering Sachin Tendulkar’s record as the all-time highest run-getter in Test cricket if he maintains his current form.

Root, at present, is over 2,000 runs behind Sachin, who finished his Test career with 15,921 runs from 200 appearances.

“I don’t see why he (Root) cannot (go past Sachin),” Smith, who will be representing Welsh Fire at The Hundred this year, said at a select media interaction facilitated by Sony Sports Network on Sunday.

“He’s batting pretty well at the moment. And yeah, it looks like he’s got a while to play yet as well. So, if he keeps playing the way that he is at the moment, it’s certainly a real chance to take over Sachin. That’s for sure,” the former Australia captain stated.

Smith, 36, used to be viewed by many as the best in the longest format, but over the last few years, he has fallen a little behind Root, who’s also almost a couple of years younger than him. Runs-wise as well, Smith (10,477) is behind the England No.4, who has already gone past 13,400 runs.

Smith, however, acknowledged that the pitches in England have been flatter this summer and so have made batting considerably easier.

Olympics goal

Securing a berth in the Australian squad for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles — which marks cricket’s comeback in the Olympics — is one of the primary objectives for Smith going forward. That certainly makes his stint in The Hundred and other shorter-format leagues all the more important.

“Since it got announced that LA (Los Angeles) was going to have the Olympics, it’s kind of been at the front of my mind and a goal of mine to try and get into that (Australian) team. So yeah, I think for me being able to play some more short-format cricket, it sort of helps me keep putting my name up there, I suppose.

“I haven’t been in the T20I team for a little while now, but one-day cricket and Test cricket take up a lot of time. So, since retiring from one-day cricket, that (Olympics) was a huge reason why I did it so that I could play some more short-format cricket and hopefully, just get better at it and keep putting my name up there,” Smith, with 5,806 runs from 258 T20s so far, elaborated.

“You bounce in and out of formats, which I’ve been able to do for quite some time now,” he added.