‘Fab four’ or not, Joe Root is a modern great A Set the default text size A Set large text size Replay A Set the default text size A Set large text size Is there a more tedious discussion in world cricket than whether Joe Root belongs in the so-called ‘fab four’? We went down that inevitable rabbit role after Root’s brilliant 218 against India in an absorbing Chennai first Test. Does Root now belong in the same discussion as Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli? It really is cricket’s equivalent of the Leo Messi versus Cristiano Ronaldo tedium.