Chasing a Ghost: Root, The King, and the 5,907-Run Gulf

 

📰 THE KESARI BABU COLUMN

(Author's Note: This column is an analysis dedicated to the fans of Virat Kohli, celebrating his monumental record. The following discussion of Joe Root—the clear and undisputed #2 active player—is not intended as 'hate' or 'jealousy.' It is a respectful thought experiment: a look at the sheer scale of the mountain he has to climb, which only highlights the magnitude of Kohli's achievement. - KB)

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The King's Domain: Why Root is Just Chasing a 6,000-Run Shadow

By Kesari Babu

Sometimes, a single image can cut through all the noise, debate, and opinion. A graphic, published by the good folks at Sportskeeda, did exactly that this week. It laid bare the landscape of modern batting, listing the "Most International Runs Among Active Players."

"𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐩 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥!" they declared. And they were right.

It wasn't just the visual, but one single number that leapt off the page, a figure so vast it demands our full attention.

5,907.

That, as the Sportskeeda graphic so clearly visualized, is the colossal gulf separating the King, Virat Kohli (27,673), from the admirable Joe Root (21,766).

Let that sink in. Root, a man we are told is a generational great, a pillar of the "Fab Four," is trailing his chief contemporary by a gap larger than the entire T20I career of Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, and Virender Sehwag combined.

The number-crunchers and spreadsheet analysts, inspired by this very data, have been busy. "Can he do it?" they whisper, pointing to their projections. They ask, "How many matches does Root need to cross Kohli?"

They've done the "cold, hard math." For those who trust the spreadsheets, here is the arithmetic they are clinging to:

The Target: 5,907 runs

Root's Career Output (to date):

• He has batted in 493 international innings to score his 21,766 runs.

• This gives him a career average of ~44.15 runs per inning.

• Over his career, he has played in ~29 matches and batted in ~38 innings per year.

The Projection:

• Innings Needed: 5,907 (run gap) $\div$ 44.15 (runs per inning) = ~134 innings

• Time Needed: 134 (innings needed) $\div$ 38 (innings per year) = ~3.5 years

"So, on paper," they conclude from this, "Root can catch Kohli's current total by the time he is 38 or 39."

This, my friends, is a beautiful fantasy. It's a lovely, sterile calculation that is as hollow as a drum. It is the ultimate "on paper" argument, and it fundamentally misses the entire point.

Why? Because this isn't a race. It is a lesson in supremacy.

The Illusion of a "Moving Target"

The simple flaw in the analysis used to be that the target, King Kohli, was still sprinting. But the reality is now so much more profound.

The King has, for the most part, left the battlefield.

By age 37, Virat Kohli has already sealed his legacy. He has won the T20 World Cup and retired from the format. He has retired from the gruelling toil of Test cricket. His monumental 27,673-run fortress was built while mastering three formats simultaneously, a feat that broke the minds and bodies of lesser men.

He now chooses his arena. He plays in ODIs—the format he has utterly dominated with 51 centuries—adding to his legacy as he wishes, like an emperor surveying his lands.

The King's Standard

And what of Joe Root? A brilliant batsman, a credit to his nation. He is 34 and still grinding. He must play every Test match, he must show up for ODI series, all while knowing that his peak years are behind him.

His "chase" is not against a rival; it is against a ghost. It is against a standard set years ago by a man operating on a different plane.

The "3.5-year" calculation assumes Root, from age 35 to 39, can maintain the same superhuman form that Kohli did in his prime. It assumes he will not break down. It assumes he will not lose form. It assumes he can fight a battle on three fronts while time, the undefeated champion, saps his strength.

So, to all the Kohli faithful, I say this: let them have their calculators. Let them talk of projections and innings. We will talk of an era.

The fact that Joe Root's entire late-career ambition is to simply reach the number Kohli left behind—a number so starkly highlighted by that Sportskeeda post—is the single greatest testament to the King's reign.

Root is not chasing a target. He is chasing a shadow. And that shadow, my friends, is 5,907 runs long.

The Lost Music of Time: Reclaiming the Forgotten Rhythm of the 13-Month Calendar

In a world ruled by digital clocks and relentless deadlines, have you ever paused to ask: where did our calendar come from? Why do we live by twelve months of uneven days? And what was lost when we abandoned the ancient, intuitive rhythm of thirteen?

As I've explored in my research, the story of our calendar is not one of simple mathematics, but of power, nature, and the very structure of our souls. Let us journey back and rediscover the quiet beauty of a timekeeper that once connected us to the cycles of the earth and sky.

The Natural Elegance of Thirteen

Long before empires sought to standardize time, civilizations lived in harmony with the moon. A lunar year naturally contains 13 cycles, each lasting about 28 days. This is a perfect symmetry, a rhythm that mirrors our own biology, the agricultural seasons, and the timing of spiritual ceremonies.

This wasn't a fringe idea; it was a global wisdom.

• The Maya employed the sophisticated Tun-Uc calendar with 13 periods of 28 days each.
• The Cherokee Nation followed 13 moon cycles, remarkably using the 13 large scutes on a turtle's shell as their guide.
• Ancient Druids and other European groups also honoured 13-moon calendars, viewing time not as a straight line, but as a repeating cycle of grief, healing, and rebirth.

These calendars often consisted of 13 months of exactly 4 weeks, totalling 364 days. The remaining day was often set aside as a "day out of time"—a sacred pause for renewal and reflection before the next cycle began.

A Shift in Power, Not Precision

So, why did we change? The transition to a 12-month system wasn't fundamentally scientific—it was political. The very word "calendar" gives us a clue; it derives from the Latin

kalendas, the first day of the month when debts were collected and taxes paid, essentially an "accounting book".

In 45 BCE, Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar to align the months with the solar year, a system influenced by the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes. Then, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII refined it with the Gregorian calendar, correcting for seasonal drift and, crucially, standardizing Christian festivals across Catholic territories. This system, adopted through political and economic pressure, became the global standard, but it came at a cost: it disconnected time from nature's rhythm.

Living Legacies: Echoes of a Different Time

Yet, this ancient rhythm was not entirely lost. Some cultures hold fast to this deeper connection.

Ethiopia: A Thriving 13-Month Nation Ethiopia remains a living legacy of this older way. The nation still officially uses a 13-month calendar, consisting of 12 months of exactly 30 days, plus a 13th month called Pagumē, which has 5 or 6 days. This system preserves a profound spiritual and emotional depth. Festivals like

Enkutatash (New Year) and Timket (Epiphany) are tied not to static dates, but to the pulse of the seasons.

India: A Dual Rhythm for the Soul India’s calendar history is layered and poetic, a tapestry of different systems. While the Gregorian calendar was adopted for civil use during the colonial era, traditional calendars like the lunisolar

Vikram Samvat and the solar Shaka Samvat continue to guide festivals, marriages, and spiritual life. In 1957, India officially adopted the Shaka calendar to be used alongside the Gregorian system, preserving a unique dual rhythm—"one for governance, one for the soul".

What We Can Reclaim

The global shift to 12 months brought a certain kind of order, but we must acknowledge what was sacrificed.

• Emotional Timing: Rituals became fixed dates rather than felt experiences, losing their organic connection to community readiness.
• Cyclical Wisdom: We traded cyclical time, which honours periods of rest and renewal, for a linear model of endless, forward progression.
• Feminine Spirituality: Women's spiritual roles, often deeply connected to lunar phases, were diminished as solar-based calendars took precedence.

But as Ethiopia and India show us, we can resist this disconnection. For those of us who are writers, artists, and storytellers, the calendar is more than just a tool for scheduling; it is a structure for meaning.

Whether you follow Gregorian dates or lunar rhythms, I invite you to consider this: What does your calendar say about your connection to nature, to your ancestors, and to your own soul? Let us seek to find the music again. As I wrote in my original article, "Each month can be a chapter. Each moon, a mood. Each ritual, a reminder."

Example Calendar:

S.No	Ethiopian Month	Ethiopian Year	Gregorian Equivalent	Notes
1	Meskerem	2012	Sept 11 – Oct 10, 2019	Ethiopian New Year (Enkutatash), renewal and gratitude
2	Tikimt	2012	Oct 11 – Nov 9, 2019	Harvest season, ancestral offerings
3	Hidar	2012	Nov 10 – Dec 9, 2019	Fasting, remembrance, spiritual depth
4	Tahsas	2012	Dec 10, 2019 – Jan 8, 2020	Christmas (Genna) on Tahsas 29
5	Tir	2012	Jan 9 – Feb 7, 2020	Epiphany (Timket) on Tir 11, water blessings
6	Yekatit	2012	Feb 8 – Mar 8, 2020	Martyrs’ Day on Yekatit 12, reflection
7	Megabit	2012	Mar 9 – Apr 7, 2020	COVID-19 arrives on Megabit 4
8	Miyazya	2012	Apr 8 – May 7, 2020	Palm Sunday, Easter (Fasika), renewal
9	Ginbot	2012	May 8 – Jun 6, 2020	Victory of Adwa commemorations
10	Sene	2012	Jun 7 – Jul 6, 2020	Rainy season, cleansing rituals
11	Hamle	2012	Jul 7 – Aug 5, 2020	Agricultural rituals, emotional grounding
12	Nehase	2012	Aug 6 – Sept 4, 2020	End-of-year reflections, ancestral memory
13	Pagumē	2012	Sept 5 – Sept 10, 2020	Transitional month (6 days in leap year), pause before renewal