Joe Root has insisted helping England win games rather than surpassing Sachin Tendulkar as test cricket's all-time leading run-scorer remains his primary motivation after moving into second place in the standings.
Root leapfrogged three greats of the game during his magnificent 150 in the fourth test against India at Old Trafford on Friday, overtaking Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis before going past former Australia captain Ricky Ponting.
Now only Tendulkar, with a mammoth 15 921 test runs, is ahead of Root, although Ponting is among those who believe the 34-year-old former England captain has time on his side to close the 2 512-run gap to the India great.
But Root, who has compiled 21 hundreds since turning 30, is wary of the hype and wants attention turned to the fact England are pressing for a series-clinching win in Manchester at 2-1 up in the five-test contest
"It is easy to get caught up in this stuff but at the end of the day, you’re playing against India in one of the biggest series there is," Root told Sky Sports.
"It's not about you, it's about winning the game and getting your team in a position where you can follow through on that."
Nevertheless, he added: "When you look at the names there on that list, they are all people that, as a kid, growing up, that's who I would try and be in the garden, on the street, on the driveway, at my local club.
"Even just to be mentioned in the (same) sentence as these guys is a bit of a pinch-yourself moment."
Root said a period of reflection during Covid, when he was still England captain, prompted changes to his game that have helped the Yorkshireman amass 5 586 runs at a high average of 56.42 since the start of 2021.
"I actually went away during that period and asked can I get some footage off Sky and just look at modes of dismissal (to see) if there were any trends," he explained.
"One thing that I've done within that period is actually try and look at the game slightly differently.
"At the start of my career, a lot of it was based on my technique. Whereas in this second phase of things, it’s been more about managing risk and thinking how can I eliminate as many modes of dismissal as possible with the highest output?
"It's very easy to get caught up, get too emotional, either get too hard on yourself or feel too sorry for yourself."