Harry Brook reserved the highest praise for his countryman and teammate Joe Root ahead of the fourth Test against India and labelled him as the best Test batter of all time as England aim to seal a series victory having taken a 2-1 lead in the 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.

Root, who hit a century in the third Test at Lord's was key to the Ben Stokes-led team's victory in the thriller at the 'Home of Cricket', which the hosts won by 22 runs, with the series on a knife-edge at 1-1. The 34-year-old regained the World No.1 spot on the ICC's Men's Test batter rankings, just a game after losing the top spot to Harry Brook.

Brook made no qualms about losing the top spot and made an honest admission that he is not in the same league as the ex-England captain while labelling him as the best Test batter of all time.

"Everybody wants to be number one, don't they? Him (Root), probably more than anybody else. He's a phenomenal player, I'm not in the same league as him. I'll happily let him have it. He's played for 12-13 years. In my opinion, he is the best Test batter of all time. So, I'll let him have that," said Brook in a pre-match press conference.

The England white-ball skipper further recalled Root's reaction to him getting the spot for the first time in December when England were touring New Zealand.

"He did (speak to me about it) the first time, when we were in New Zealand. He gave me a handshake. And then he took it off me, three days later," said Brook.

Root will hope to ensure he retains the spot after the fourth Test in Manchester, which starts on Wednesday (July 23) and is on the cusp of history and can climb to second spot in the all-time run-getters list in Test cricket.

Currently, he has 13259 runs in 156 matches at an average of 50.80 and is fourth on the list, just 29 runs away from Rahul Dravid, 30 runs away from Jacques Kallis, and 119 runs away from Ricky Ponting.