Stats: Highest run scorers for each team in Test cricket

It took Younis Khan 102 test matches to achieve the huge feat

The long-standing record of Javed Miandad as the highest run scorer for Pakistan in Tests has finally been broken by Younis Khan, after the 37-year-old hit a six off England’s Moeen Ali in a test match at Abu Dhabi on October 13, 2015. It is a remarkable achievement by the Pakistani batsman, as no one in the last three decades could surpass the veteran’s record.

Javed Miandad became Pakistan’s highest run-getter in Tests on October 20, 1985, when he scored his 5059th test run to go past Zaheer Abbas. He ended his career in 1996 with a record 8832 runs.

In the past, only two other Pakistani batsmen came close to breaking Miandad’s record, but both failed to do so. Inzamam-ul-Haq missed the record by just three runs in his last match for his country, getting stumped by the keeper after trying to go for a six to reach the landmark. He is joined by Mohammad Yousuf, whose career ended with him scoring 7530 runs.

In last four months, this is the third instance of a player breaking the record of the highest Test runs for his country.

On May 30, 2015, Alastair Cook broke the long-standing record of Graham Gooch to become the highest run-getter for England in Tests and a couple of weeks later on June 13, Tamim Iqbal went past Habibul Bashar’s record of most Test runs for Bangladesh.

So on this occasion, let’s see the highest run-getters for each Test team.

Leading run scorers for each team

Team Batsman Runs Matches Innings Average 100s 50s Highest Score
Australia Ricky Ponting 13378 168 287 51.85 41 62 257
Bangladesh Tamim Iqbal 3118** 42 80 39.46 7 18 206
England Alastair Cook 9330** 120 213 46.41 27 44 294
India Sachin Tendulkar 15921 200 329 53.78 51 68 248*
New Zealand Stephen Fleming 7172 111 189 40.06 9 46 274*
Pakistan Younis Khan 8897** 102 182 52.67 30 29 313
South Africa Jacques Kallis 13289 166 280 55.37 45 58 224
Sri Lanka Kumar Sangakkara 12400 134 233 57.40 38 52 319
West Indies Brian Lara 11953 131 232 52.88 34 48 400*
Zimbabwe Andy Flower 4794 63 112 51.54 12 27 232*

** still active

  • Only Bangladesh, England and Pakistan have their highest run-getter playing at present.
  • Kumar Sangakkara recently retired from Tests for Sri Lanka.
  • Bangladesh’s highest run-getter has the lowest aggregate of all the other batsman.
  • New Zealand’s highest run-getter has the lowest aggregate among the top eight Test teams.
  • The highest run scorer’s average is less than 50 for Bangladesh, New Zealand and England

Let’s also see the same for other teams and with all the details.

Sachin Tendulkar’s 15921 runs makes him the highest run-getter for test team

Highest run-getter and the previous highest run-getter for each team

Team Highest run scorer Previous record holder Runs Date of Record
Australia Ricky Ponting Allan Border 11174 30 July 2009
Bangladesh Tamim Iqbal Habibul Bashar 3026 13 June 2015
England Alastair Cook Graham Gooch 8900 30 May 2015
India Sachin Tendulkar Sunil Gavaskar 10122 28 March 2015
New Zealand Stephen Fleming Martin Crowe 5444 26 October 2004
Pakistan Younish Khan Javed Miandad 8832 13 October 2015
South Africa Jacques Kallis Gary Kirsten 7289 30 April 2005
Sri Lanka Kumar Sangakkara Mahela Jayawardene 11493 18 July 2014
West Indies Brian Lara Viv Richards 8540 13 November 2003
Zimbabwe Andy Flower Grant Flower 2044 10 December 1998
  • For Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, the previous record holder hadn’t retired when the record was broken.
  • Andy Flower is now the longest holder for the record of highest number of runs scored for any team, holding on to the record since 1998. For all other teams, the record was broken after 2000.
  • Two teams can have new record holders in a year or so – Brendon McCullum (6008) can go past Stephen Fleming (7172) for New Zealand and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (11867) can surpass Brian Lara (11912) for West Indies if he gets to play even one match!

*All statistics as of October 15, 2015

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