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Sachin Tendulkar is widely regarded as one of the finest batters ever to play the game. Years after he has hung up his boots, he is still the record holder of the most international runs as well as the most runs in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and Test match cricket respectively.

In addition, Tendulkar also owns the record for the most international hundreds, having scored 100 international centuries - an enviable record that most batters who like to challenge themselves would want to chase. Among the current crop of batters, not many can come close to Tendulkar's record of 15921 Test runs but still, there are a few who might overhaul this tally.

Here in this article, we list 3 batters who can go past Tendulkar's record of most runs in Test cricket.

1. Joe Root

The latest entrant to the 10,000 Test run-club Joe Root is the runaway favourite to break Tendulkar's record. This is because the former England Test captain is 31-years-old and if he does not experience any dip in form, he is likely to achieve the 6000 odd more runs.

The other thing that goes in Root's favour is that England play a lot of Test matches which would make him the favourite to cross Tendulkar's tally of 200 Test matches.

Currently, Root has 10,015 Test runs from 118 matches at an average of 49.57 and a highest score of 254. He has 26 Test centuries to his credit to go with his 53 half-centuries.

2. Virat Kohli

Number 2 on this list is Virat Kohli. While he looked set to break all Tendulkar records at one point, his career has seen a bit of a lump in recent times. Having said that, Kohli can still break Tendulkar's record of most Test runs once he overcomes and gets back to the champion batter that the world has known him to be. Kohli is the only name on this list who actively plays all three formats of the game.

Given Kohli's love for the traditional format, if ever he has to give up one form to elongate his career, it would be one of the shorter formats and going by that supposition and his prime fitness at 33, Kohli is in with a chance to break that record.

For now, Kohli has 8043 Test runs from 101 matches at an average of 49.95 and a highest score of 254*. He has 27 Test hundreds along with 28 half-centuries.

3. Steve Smith

The third name on this list is Steve Smith. The current Australia vice-captain in the longest format of the game was out of the game for a while but still isn't far away from Kohli's tally of runs. At one point, Smith averaged above 60 in Test match cricket and even after a little lull period, his average stands at a staggering 59.77.

Smith has played the least number of matches among the three names in this article with 85 Tests. Yet he isn't far behind Kohli's 8043 Test runs as he himself has 8010 runs which he has accumulated with the help of 27 tons and 36 fifties. His highest score in Test match cricket is 239.

If Smith at 33 can stay injury-free, he can definitely have a chance of going past Tendulkar's Test runs given the long Test tours that Cricket Australia schedules.