However, when examining the data for T20I matches played in 2025, the Nepali team tends to get opposition batsmen run out far more often than their own batsmen are run out.

They’ve found their batters being run out in 7 matches, and a total of 9 times, from the 16 completed matches in 2025. They’ve had two dismissals to run out twice in a match, once with Scotland and the other in the third T20I against the West Indies, and they’ve gone one to lose both matches.

Win-loss ratio when run outs have occurred :

Out of the 7 matches, Nepal have lost 3 and won 4, and the two losses have come when they’ve lost more than one wicket to run out

How much better was Nepal at inflicting run-outs compared to being dismissed by run-out in 2025?

Percentage Difference=(16−9) /9= 0.78

Nepal produced roughly 78% more run-outs than they suffered.

Order of batsmen run out

It was mostly the batsmen in the lower order (9 to 11) and Lower middle order (7 and 8) that were run out 5 times in total. Given that lower-order batsmen often look for quick runs and are not traditionally strong runners, this is expected. Only once in the 16 innings was a top-order batsman run out, and 3 times were the middle-order batsmen run out.

Ultimately, the data shows that Nepali batters aren’t reckless between the wickets, even if it sometimes feels that way.

Nepal played 17 T20 internationals in 2025, of which one was washed out. In this time, they beat the West Indies, and qualified for the T20 World Cup in 2026.

Here’s how the Rhinos have gotten their wickets in these 17 internationals –

About 12.5% of the dismissals come from run-out and has been third on the list of Nepal’s mode of dismissal of opponent batsmen in 2025.

Of the 16 completed in 2025, there have been 11 matches where they’ve been able to inflict at least one run-out. Which means, 68.75% of the matches Nepal played this year, they’ve been involved with at least one run-out dismissal.

The maximum number of run-outs in a game has been the game against the UAE in the World Cup Qualifiers. There were 3 run-outs that day, and Nepal went on to win the game by one run.

One of the reasons behind the run-outs dismissal has to be Nepal’s ability to get direct hits. In 2025 -

56% of run-outs were direct hits. And the other 44% were keeper assisted. Direct hits are often close calls—and Nepal have been hitting the wickets quite frequently.

Dipendra Singh Airee, Nepal’s gun fielder, has been heads above anybody else in the team. He alone has 6 run-outs this year, 5 of which are direct hits. The rest of the team has also contributed to the run-out counts, but none more so than DS Airee.

Most run-outs victims have been the middle order batsmen (4-8), and it goes to show, Nepali fielders become that extra bowler in the middle over, taking crucial wickets. There are also a few run-out victims at the top of the order, and only one victim is a lower-order batsman.

Staggeringly, Nepal have won 10 out of the 11 games, where they’ve inflicted run-outs. It’s like the adage “Catches win matches” in Nepal’s case has turned to “Catches win matches, but run outs are the icing on the cake.”

Nepal has consistently shown they’ve been a good fielding side, but now, with these numbers to back it up, it’s only a sign of good things to come for this talented Nepali side.

Gulshan Jha can’t get his bat on the short ball, but the batters scamper for a quick single. Quinton de Kock fires a throw at the striker’s end and misses. The ball trickles to Heinrich Klaasen, who gathers and underarms it at the non-striker’s end — and hits. Gulshan Jha is short by inches. South Africa win; Nepal lose by one run. Heartbreak for Nepal, who came within touching distance of pulling off a famous upset at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.

For Nepali cricket fans all over, the what-ifs were all that remained — “What if the ball hadn’t fallen so kindly for Klaasen so close to the stumps? What if Jha had put in the dive? Then we would be heading to a Super Over. What if we had managed to score one more boundary with only 8 to get in the final over?”

I, being a cricket fan and a Nepali, was gutted and upset that we let it slip. We were so close to an enormous scalp, but were undone at the last hurdle. When the dust settled though, I asked myself: where did Nepal actually lose the game? Was it on the last ball, or — as I’d noticed during the match — was it the far too many dots that ultimately became the major differentiator between the two sides?

The straight answer — yes. Nepal had 68 dot deliveries out of the 120 available, which means 57% of their innings comprised dot deliveries. South Africa had 59 dot deliveries, about 49% of their innings. And as the adage goes in T20 cricket: “Dot deliveries are worth gold.”

The Kingstown pitch that day aided the slow bowlers, and the Nepali spinners put the South African batters under pressure. Airee with his offbreaks, and Bhurtel with his leg spin bagged 3 and 4 wickets respectively. Having bundled out the Proteas for a paltry 115, Nepal began brightly with the bat, 32 for none in the powerplay, built the innings with 62 for 3 in the mid-overs, until it all fell apart in the last five, where Nepal lost four wickets for 19 runs, and ultimately cost them the match.

But underneath, the good powerplay, the stable middle overs, and the collapse, there was a deeper issue that lay dormant.

Below, a table of dot deliveries comparison between the two sides:

The Powerplays

On the outside, when looking at the Powerplay score, Nepal scored 32 runs in the first 6 overs chasing 115. However, upon closer observation, we see 27 dot deliveries out of 36 available deliveries – that is, 75% were either dot deliveries or extras. What is even more staggering is, Nepali batters scored 26 runs, but off only the 6 deliveries with their bats, the other runs came as extras in the remaining 3 deliveries.

Contrast that to South Africa, who lost De Kock early, still found ways to score and scored off of 6 more deliveries than Nepal.

Upon closer inspection of the runs scored during the Powerplay,

South Africa made sure they got singles and doubles, and even though they did not hit a maximum during the Powerplay, they still outscored Nepal. Nepal could not consistently find the singles, and it was really the extras that kept them closer to South Africa at this point.

The Middle-Overs

Nepal got some much-needed control in the middle of the innings and outscored South Africa by 16 runs. Nepal also had 3 fewer dot deliveries than South Africa in this stage. But the takeaway here comes when we look at the Delivery outcomes in the runs table:

We can observe how South Africa has scored the same amount of runs in singles as Nepal, despite having more dot deliveries than Nepal. However, take nothing away from Nepali batters; the middle overs belonged to Nepal, and it looked like they were the favorites from here.

The Death-Overs

This is where all the experience and the ability to handle pressure come into play, and it showed. Nepal was the inexperienced side, and the Proteas came roaring back into the game.

Nepal were abysmal again and consumed another 15 dot deliveries in the death overs — criminal, as they say. Fifty percent of the deliveries were dots at the tail end of a tight chase.

South Africa, clearly with their vast experience, built their innings towards the back end in the death overs. The consolidation in the middle overs meant they could push on in the final five. And even though it was not a big push towards the end, the singles mattered in the end.

Nepal did not lose that fateful day in the last over, nor because Jha did not dive to make his ground. Nepal outscored South Africa in boundaries by 8 runs, having scored 9 fours and 4 sixes (60), to South Africa’s 10 fours and 2 sixes (52 runs). But South Africa had 44 singles to Nepal’s 35, and outscored Nepal by 9 runs in singles.

It is that margin of one run between the boundaries and the singles that separates the two sides — the margin between victory and defeat.

Root, who currently has 13543 runs at an average of 51 from 158 Tests, sits second in the pile of most Test runs scored. He overtook both Kallis and Ponting in the most recent Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, where he scored 537 runs at an average of 67.12. He also added two centuries to his burgeoning tally of 100s. Over the last 13 years since 2012, we have seen the rise of Joe Root, and this Yorkshireman would be in contention to overhaul the Everest of Test Cricket runs. Will he, won’t he, time will tell. But for Root to even be in contention and to start provoking this question among cricket fans is a moment to relish.

Joe Root, without a doubt, is one of the finest batsmen England has ever produced, perhaps even the greatest English batsman. As conversations about Test cricket gradually give way to the glamour of T20s, this might be one of the last chances we have to reflect on this. It’s also likely to be the final time we hear the cliché, “Records are meant to be broken,” at least for this record.

No one has ever come so close and yet been far at the same time. Even as we are having this conversation, Root is still 2378 Test runs away and might be another two years away. But if it were to happen, you’d want the best seat in the house to watch it, and that’s why here I am.

What happens if Root continues to score at his present average?

If we were to extrapolate the number of innings Root needs to get to Tendulkar’s total runs, looking at his career average,

Joe Root’s career average = 51.29 (as of October 30th, 2025)

Runs required to get past Tendulkar = 15921 – 13543 = 2378 runs

Total Test required = 2378/ 51.29 = 46 Test innings around 23 Tests

This, however, is a simple abstraction dependent solely on his career average, which is highly variable year by year. To dig deeper, we have to look at England’s fixture over the next scheduled fixtures, and see if the scheduling and his averages against these teams give a better insight into answering the question at hand.

Currently, we have scheduled fixtures for England starting from December 2025 – the Ashes to December 2026. During this time, they play Australia away, and two home series against New Zealand and Pakistan.

Before delving into the fixture-wise possibilities, given what an exceptional post-2020 Root has had, we will look at the scenarios before and after 2020.

Before 2021 scenario

Before 2021, Root averaged 47.99, and twice averaged under 40 in a calendar year, once in 2019, and in 2013. He also scored 12 hundred from 2012-2020. If Root were to score the bulk of his runs in the remainder of the matches, at an average before 2021, then it would take him,

Total Test required = 2378/ 47.99 = about 49.55 innings = 25 Tests

Since 2021 scenario:

Root has had a phenomenal last five years (2021-2025), averaging 56.63, and has scored 22 hundreds in this time. Before this, in his last 8 years from 2012-2020, he had 12 hundred, so he has been scoring a bit over 4 centuries a year, and his Test form is getting better. If we take his average from these years, the total Tests required to get past Tendulkar are:

Total Test required = 2378 / 56.63 = About 41.99 innings = 21 Tests

England are scheduled to play 11 of the Tests in 2025/26, whose fixtures are out, and they are scheduled to play 16 Tests until the end of April 2027. So realistically, if Root is still playing, we should expect him to be ever so close to the top of the pile by which time he will be 37.

But, where is Root likely to end up at the end of 2026?

The fixtures till the end of 2026 have been set, and for the sake of the article, we remain optimistic that Root will play the 11 Tests until the September 2026 against Australia (away), and at home to New Zealand and Pakistan.

First up, there is the Ashes, and we can expect Root to play all five Tests.

Root travels to Australia for the Ashes in the twilight of his career and under a bit of pressure of having never scored a hundred here. But for all the talk about him not having a hundred here, he still averages a healthy 40.46 against the Australians overall, and 35.68 in 14 Tests in Australia.

Career average by opposition

At this rate, at the end of the 2026 calendar year, Root will have another 1045 runs and will be 1333 runs away from Tendulkar’s total.

Career average by Country venue

The overall averages, though, miss the point that Root has scored his runs differently at home and away. If he were to score his as per his country-specific average, then -

While Root averages less than 40 in Australia and below his career average against Australia, he does average higher against both New Zealand and Pakistan at home. He will be 1342 runs behind Tendulkar’s tally by the end of 2026 if he scores at his usual rate against these teams.

With 16 Tests scheduled until April 2027, of which 11 are accounted for by September 2026, if Root scores at his career average in the remaining 5 Tests,

The calculation is: 5 x 51.69 = 258.45, approximately 258 runs.

This would add roughly 258 runs to his total of either 14579 or 14588, depending on his scoring rate against different opponents and countries, putting him 1000 runs shy of Tendulkar.

Will he reach that mark or not? Only time will tell. For now, we wait to see what this modern master accomplishes in the sport’s pinnacle – Test cricket. I, for one, am rooting for a nail-biting finish, and if it comes down to that, this individual rivalry will be a story for the ages.

I’ve also created an interactive playground where you can project when Root might reach Tendulkar’s tally:
https://saralkarki.github.io/Root_Tendulkar/

Data: ESPNcricinfo. Analysis and visualization by The Cricket Gardens.

Looking at the batting average there is a general tendency to consider 50 as being great, and anything over 40 in Test cricket is good. The median score, however, highlights how often batsmen actually get to 50’s or even 40’s.

Anantha Narayanan’s Cricinfo article, “What median scores tell us about batting careers” highlights this, where even the great Bradman who averages 99.94 and has a mean of 87.45, only has a median score of 56.5 (and I say only compared to his average). Which is to say out of his 80 innings Bradman scored 56 runs or more half of the time, and the other half he scored less than 56. Those are still some imperious numbers compared to the rest as can be seen in the two articles mentioned above.

Our focus here is on the Fab Four, and although, Kohli has now retired from Test cricket it still makes sense to look at the original Fab Four.

We can see, as with the great Don, that the Fab Four’s median scores fall well below their averages. Which is to say, even the Fab Four fail to reach their median scores in half their innings.

Burkard Polster and Marty Ross write in their piece- The median is the message “The median of mere mortal batsmen is typically in the low 30s.” In that regards the Fab Four are right up there with the mortals. But, then again, as Wilson writes in Batting Medians “Looking at all of the batsmen, it appears that a median of 30 is a measure of greatness.” – it looks as if the Fab Four have now become a Fab Three with Kohli languishing closer to the 20’s than 30’s and now having retired from test cricket altogether.

Looking at the mode (excluding the ducks) gave out some pretty interesting numbers as well. The mode is the value which is most represented in the data set, and in case of Root and Williamson, they both have been on 4 runs, with Smith having 6 runs as the mode. Kohli again falters behind with his mode as 1 run.

Kohli leads the duck charts and has 15 ducks in his career, compared to 11 each for Smith and Williamson, and 13 for Root.

Another interesting exploration was to see how often when the Fab Four get to their median scores go on to score big.

The Fab Four, when they do get to their respective median scores, tend to push on and get bigger scores. Root goes on to get a hundred or more around 26% of the times, Kohli about 28 % of the times, Smith about 34% of the times, and Williamson a crazy 35% of the times. Kohli tends to be dismissed between his median score 23 and 49 most times, but for the rest, they get dismissed below 50 only about a quarter of times and usually push on to get somewhere between a 50 to 99, or over 100 about 75% of the times.

Finally, I wanted to explore a series of streaks to see how consistent the Fab Four have been in getting to their median scores.

Below is a table of the streaks of runs the batsmen has put at getting more than their median scores. The table only looks at streak of 4 or more than 4 innings. And going into the Ashes, Root and Smith both look like they have recent streaks, meaning they come both seem to be coming in back of some real form. Joe Root looks ominous; he comes in on the back of that great series against India and is in the middle of a streak of five. While Smith is also coming in hot but had that streak of 3 broken by South Africa, and then only to have his another streak of 2 broken in the third test against West Indies. Smith, Root, and Williamson, all seem to have enjoyed a streak of at least 7 stints of going past their median scores in the past.

Smith :

Root :

Kohli:

Williamson:

Data: ESPNcricinfo. Analysis and visualization by The Cricket Gardens.

In Brisbane the venue for the second Test, and Melbourne the venue for the fourth Test, Cummins has been immaculate. In Melbourne, he is economical and averages 20 runs per wicket, and strikes at tad over 40, outperforming Hazlewood, Starc and Lyon. Only Boland has a better average and strike rate than Cummins here with far fewer matches. Hazlewood seems to struggle in Melbourne a bit more than other, so Boland might be a good pick for this Test again given his exploits here in Ashes 21/22. In Brisbane, Cummins is miserly with the ball and averages under 20, and the strike rate is under 40. Here too he outperforms his bowling team mates. Sydney tell a similar story, Cummins averages and strikes better than Starc and Lyon. And while Hazlewood is almost as economical in Sydney as Cummins, Cummins strikes at about 46 while Hazlewood is at 56. Finally, in Adelaide, Hazlewood and Starc have found most success, followed by Cummins.

All in all, it would be safe to say, if Australia would have to pick a venue to be without the services of Cummins in the bowling attack, it would be in Perth. Elsewhere the pace attack without Cummins in it would be a lesser attack against England

Data: ESPNcricinfo. Analysis and visualization by The Cricket Gardens.

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Cummins looks set to miss the first Ashes Test. That’s a big absence — but if there’s one venue Australia can handle it, it’s Perth. His record here: 15 wickets at 26.33 and a strike rate of 62.26 in 5 matches. Compare that to Hazlewood (16 wickets at 19.62, SR 52.37), Starc (26 wickets at 21.61, SR 43.61), and Lyon (29 wickets at 20.86, SR 47.89) — all across the same number of Tests. Here, the others have historically carried more of the load.